Doing drugs on Home D

A man given home detention for drug dealing has been caught out with an ‘‘extremely high reading’’ of methamphetamine in his system.

Last November, Peter John Van Praagh was given an 11 month sentence of home detention after pleading guilty to possessing cannabis and methamphetamine, or P, for supply. After a police raid in New Plymouth on May 2, 2017, the 42-year-old was found with 1.75 grams of P and more than four ounces of cannabis.

On Thursday, he was back in the dock of the New Plymouth District Court after more illegal drugs were found, this time in his urine. During the hearing, Van Praagh pleaded guilty to twice breaching the conditions of his home detention sentence.

The first breach related to the defendant leaving his home detention address in Waitara without permission. In the probation service’s summary of facts, it said when a field officer went to visit Van Praagh’s address on March 13 after being alerted to a ‘‘strap tamper’’ or a problem with the defendant’s electronic anklet, he was greeted by a strong smell of cannabis.

On March 26, Van Praagh failed to provide a clean drug test, after traces of amphetamine and codeine were found in his urine sample. The test also had ‘‘an extremely high reading for methamphetamine’’.

Judge Lynne Harrison convicted Van Praagh of the two breaches and added another month to his existing sentence of home detention, which will now end in November.

- Deena Coster