A landscaper on trial over an excavator filled with cocaine has told the New South Wales District Court he told his business partner he was an idiot for buying the machine from overseas, when he was first told about the purchase.
Timothy Engstrom, 38, from Queanbeyan, has pleaded not guilty to attempting to possess a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug.
The jury has already heard how border police intercepted the machine as it was being imported from South Africa in 2019.
An X-ray later showed more than 380 packages of cocaine hidden inside the arm of the machine.
The drugs were removed and replaced with other packages before the machine was sent on to Bungendore, just outside Canberra, where Mr Engstrom was working at a landscaping business.
Mr Engstrom was arrested when he used an angle grinder to access the packages.
On Tuesday, he took the stand in his trial, telling the jury how he first learned his business partner, Adam Hunter, had bought the excavator, in late May 2019.
"Adam begin to giggle and turned around and told me 'we've just purchased an excavator'," Mr Engstrom said.
"I said 'what do you mean?'
"He said 'it's all good, it's already done'."
Mr Engstrom said he later became aware the excavator was second-hand and from overseas.
"I told him he was an idiot," Mr Engstrom said.
"I'd had experience with imported machines … and they were nothing but trouble."
Engstrom says he thought $30k was for bills, not to pay for excavator
When quizzed about the arrangements and the cost, Mr Engstrom told the court he understood the machinery was around $25,000.
"I was under the impression it had been paid for," he said.
Mr Engstrom was also asked about a payment of $30,000 he had made to one of the businesses he was connected to.
He said he thought it was a cash injection to pay bills.
But he denied knowing it was to be used for the purchase of the excavator.
He said he did not talk to Mr Hunter about the machine again until the next month.
"I was eager to know the progress of the excavator … because I wanted to put it to work," Mr Engstrom said.
"It would have been great for repairing rural driveways."
But he admitted the company did not have any work like that lined up.
The trial is continuing.
