Builder gets home detention for meth supply offences
QUEENSTOWN
A QUEENSTOWN builder has been sentenced to nine months’ home detention after admitting offering to sell methamphetamine and possession for supply.
In the Queenstown District Court yesterday Judge Bernadette Farnan said Greg Marsden (33) had battled a methamphetamine addiction for 13 years.
Between March 12 and April 7 this year he offered via text message to supply various quantities of methamphetamine to numerous associates.
During a police search of his
Bridesdale Farm property in early May, a ziplock bag was located in his trackpants containing 5.68g of a white crystalline substance, believed to be methamphetamine, and five more were found in his bedroom containing a total of 8.93g.
Other items located included a meth pipe, a tick list and $915 in cash.
A loaded pumpaction .22 rifle was found in his vehicle, though
Marsden had no firearms licence.
When spoken to, Marsden said he had been ‘‘caught redhanded’’.
He was sentenced to home detention on the drugs charges, with six months’ postdetention conditions.
For possession of a firearm, ammunition and using a document he was sentenced to four months’ home detention, to be served concurrently.
Separately, the Tenancy Tribunal ordered Marsden pay his former landlords $4250, largely to recover the costs for meth testing and cleaning of the property.
The tribunal also ordered Marsden to pay ‘‘exemplary damages’’ of $750 for committing an unlawful act, and $1500 for two weeks’ rent. The landlords kept his $3000 bond.
A Wanaka pensioner who lied to police to protect her adult son has been sentenced to four months’ community detention.
Zelda Carol Hazlett (69), earlier admitted conspiring with her son to pervert the course of justice by making a false statement on August 3 in Wanaka.
Judge Farnan said Hazlett was told by her son on August 2 he had breached his bail conditions and the police were looking for him.
The following morning she conspired with him to fabricate a story, stating a male had borrowed her son’s vehicle and had been involved in a police chase while her son was at home the entire evening.
She subsequently signed a statement to that effect, but eventually came clean 15 days later.
In 2013, Hazlett was sentenced to 100 hours’ community work and ordered to pay $880 reparation in the Invercargill District Court for seven charges of using a document to obtain a pecuniary advantage and three of forging a cheque after admitting stealing from a 72yearold man she’d known for 18 months. At the time, The Southland
Times reported she did it ‘‘to help her son’’.
A presentence report said Hazlett showed a lack of ‘‘problemsolving ability’’ and her offending was a ‘‘misguided attempt’’ to help her son, but she denied enabling her son’s behaviour.