A former bodyguard of Kylie Minogue has faced a Brisbane court after being busted with cocaine.

Sydney man Ramel Ashourian, 36, pleaded guilty to a single charge of possession following the discovery of more than three grams of the drug stuffed inside a surgical glove hidden in his car.

The Supreme Court in Brisbane yesterday heard the one-time private investigator had specialised in providing personal protection for several international celebrities and VIPs, including Ms Minogue and US actor Will Smith, before losing his security license following a separate conviction for assault.

Lawyers said Ashourian had been visiting his partner's family in Brisbane in September 2006 when a friend asked him to conduct an unlicensed "sweep" of his home for electronic surveillance devices.

The man later paid the father of two in cocaine worth about $1200.

It was discovered in Ashourian's Toyota Hiace van on September 29 by an off-duty police officer, who noticed Ashourian behaving suspicously while refuelling his vehicle at an East Brisbane service station.

He was sentenced late yesterday to 12 months' jail but freed on immediate parole after an impromptu urine test at court cleared him of recent drug use.

"In the downward spiral of your life, you started to use cocaine," Justice Roslyn Atkinson told a heavy-set Ashourian, who stood with eyes downcast in the dock.

"I accept it was for your own personal use...and you had a drug problem at the time."

The court heard his life had literally "crashed" in 2002 when he was involved in a motorcycle accident in New South Wales.

Believing a motorist had run him off the road, he chased down the driver and bashed him.

The incident cost Ashourian his livelihood in the security industry and he went bankrupt.

Defence barrister Brad Farr SC said his client began taking cocaine only socially but had since kicked the drug and was now trying to resurrect his career by training debt collectors.

He is expected to have his parole transferred interstate so he can return home.