P dealer won’t get cash back

A convicted methamphetamine dealer has lost an appeal for the return of cash seized at his arrest.

Robert George Keen was sentenced to five years, three months’ jail in Christchurch District Court in August last year, on charges of possession of methamphetamine for supply, unlawful possession of a pistol and receiving stolen property.

Judge Alistair Garland’s sentence included an order for forfeiture of $43,170 in cash Keen was found with when the police visited the North Canterbury motor camp where he was living.

The police came to the camp after a complaint about his driving in the grounds escalated.

When police arrested Keen, they found items he had hidden beneath a mobile home.

These included a shopping bag with sealable plastic bags that contained 21.8 grams of methamphetamine and a .22 calibre revolver, loaded with seven rounds.

Police also found $43,170 cash in the bag, and more cash and digital scales bearing traces of the drug in his unit.

Keen told the court the money was to set up a trucking venture and had been loaned by friends. He maintained the drugs were for personal use, bought in bulk because it was cheaper.

The jury was unconvinced and convicted him.

Last month, Keen’s lawyer Andrew Bailey argued in the Court of Appeal there was no evidence his client planned to spend the entire sum on drugs, meaning the forfeiture was unavailable as it did not facilitate the offence for which Keen was convicted.

The appeal court agreed with Judge Garland, who said in Keen’s trial he was ‘‘left in no doubt at all’’ that the forfeited sum was ‘‘a float to fund future purchases of methamphetamine’’. The court was not required to analyse ‘‘all the possible other uses to which the offender may put money’’, the appeal court said.