Drug dealer loses bid for cash in Tupperware

A man jailed for serious drug charges has failed to convince authorities the $25,000 he had stashed in a Tupperware container was not drug money.

Police raided the South Otago home of Kelvin Bruce Wisely, 48, after a covert operation discovered he had received about 85 grams of methamphetamine from a Hamilton associate in July 2017.

The digger operator pleaded guilty to nine drug-related charges, including conspiring to supply methamphetamine, but tried to stop police seizing $25,110 in cash they found in his bedroom.

Wisely told the Dunedin District Court on Monday that the cash – which he kept in plastic Tupperware container – was from selling motorbikes and sheep carcasses.

It was to be used for everyday items partly because his local bank – an ANZ – had shut its doors.

Complicating his story was a ClickClack container also found in his bedroom.

Wisely said the money in that container was from selling drugs, and he kept it separate ‘‘because ‘‘it is easier to do it that way’’.

Judge Michael Crosbie said it was a commercial drug operation of ‘‘real scale’’, and methamphetamine was an increasing problem in the south. He ordered full forfeiture of all cash found at Wisely’s property and sentenced him to seven years and 10 months’ jail.