Inmate says he found meth amid strip search

A man caught with 40g of methamphetamine in prison says he set about trying to smoke it as soon as he could.

‘‘I was caning it,’’ Peter James Tregoweth told the Palmerston North District Court yesterday.

He is on trial, accused of possessing three bags of methamphetamine for supply.

Police and Corrections officers found the bags on Tregoweth in three different searches on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2019.

The first 2.8g bag of meth was found at the police station after he was arrested and the second, weighing 3g, was found while he was searched at Manawatu¯ Prison – both searches were done on Christmas Eve.

The final bag with 37g of meth was found while he had a Christmas morning puff in his cell.

The Crown says that much meth, combined with four cellphones, weapons, drug paraphernalia and $5680 cash found in Tregoweth’s car when he was arrested, means he was dealing.

But he, giving evidence in his defence, said he was not a dealer.

The phones were for personal use, the weapons were just tools and a knife used to open his car’s petrol flap, and the 2.8g of meth was for himself.

He gave a vague explanation for the cash, saying: ‘‘It was Christmas Eve, the money was where it needed to be’’.

He said he found the final two bags of meth in one big bag while he was being strip searched in the prison.

The bag, slotted behind a bench, was picked up while he went to pull his shorts back up, he said.

The trial earlier heard a Corrections officer swept the cell for items before Tregoweth went in.

He took the 3g bag of meth out of the large package, put the rest down his pants and gave Corrections officers the small bag when they asked him to hand it over, he said.

He then went to his cell, ate and slept before checking the rest of the package, finding cigarettes, a lighter, a meth pipe and the 37g of meth.

‘‘It’s more than I have ever seen.’’ He spent an hour smoking meth before Corrections officers snapped him, he said.

Detective Richard How, who has a decade of experience in police, said he had never heard of someone having 40g of meth purely for their own use.

Drug dealers usually had electronic scales, a scoop and plastic zip-lock bags when meeting clients, but may not have them if there was a prior agreement over how much meth would be sold.

‘‘We would not likely come across the whole kit and kaboodle.’’

Both dealers and buyers may carry weapons to protect themselves during deals since there was no legal recourse if someone did not hold up their end of a deal, he said.