Drug dealer boasted to jury about his sex life and cars

Convicted drug dealer Leslie Cavell tried to impress a courtroom with a risque lifestyle of drugs, cars and sex, but his claims were inflated and contrived, a judge said.

On Friday afternoon, 61-year-old Cavell appeared via audiovisual link before the Nelson District Court, where he was sentenced to 32 months in prison.

Last year, a jury found the Foxhill, Nelson man guilty of two charges of possessing methamphetamine and MDMA for the purpose of supply.

Before the trial, Cavell pleaded guilty to four lesser charges of possessing cannabis and a meth pipe, and unlawfully possessing a pistol and ammunition.

Judge Jo Rielly said that in December 2020 Cavell and his partner were stopped by police in the campervan they were using to travel to the North Island. Inside the campervan, police found $200,000 in cash, 35 grams of meth and 18g of MDMA.

As Cavell maintained during his trial, the couple were heading north to take a “special flight”, and were using the cash to buy a car. Due to a mistrust of banks, Cavell wanted to keep his life savings close, he said.

Cavell said during the trial that the drugs, packaged in small amounts in snaplock bags and stashed around the vehicle, were for his personal use. Cavell said he used up to 4g of meth a day, and took the MDMA to enhance sex with his partner.

A pistol and ammunition were found in the vehicle. Cavell said he bought the gun because it “looked Dirty Harry”. Later, he said he was selling it to a pig hunter.

However, messages sent via Telegram showed Cavell was attempting to buy large amounts of meth, the judge said.

Crown prosecutor Abigail Goodison said there had been difficulty reconciling what Cavell had said at different points during the judicial process. “He has a tendency to say what best suits him at the time, particularly about his drug use,” she said.

While on bail, Cavell had breached his conditions by taking a concoction of drugs, Goodison said.

Cavell had told report writers he didn’t consider meth a harmful drug; that it was useful for pain relief and that one day, it would be viewed similar to cannabis, she said.

However, he had also admitted to serious health problems, in part stemming from drug use. “Meth seems to be the cause of, and solution to, Mr Cavell’s problems.”

Cavell’s lawyer, Emma Riddell, said her client’s addiction dated back “quite some time”, and his bail breach showed how entrenched his problem was.

He was living with chronic pain, and would find jail difficult, she said.

Judge Rielly said while it was unclear how much of the drugs were for Cavell’s own use, the jury had not accepted they were for him and his partner alone.

“It does not seem to me you would have been capable of using the amounts you purported to use and for the both of you to still be living human beings.”

Cavell’s drug-taking claims were “inflated, unrealistic and exaggerated”; an attempt to convince the jury that the drugs were not for supply, she said.

Cavell appeared to enjoy having an audience during the trial, she said. “Boasting, attempting to either shock or impress the jury about your lifestyle which you portrayed as risque: your lifestyle, your cars and your sex life. But your evidence was inflated, contrived.”

The evidence instead pointed to Cavell being an “indepdendent drug dealer” who had “low stock levels” when stopped by the police.

From a 48-month start point, the judge deducted time for his guilty pleas, time on bail and in custody, and the significant health issues that would cause him discomfort in jail.