Drug dealers caught in police sting jailed

Thursday, March 18, 2010 15:38

Two drug dealers caught during a police operation have been jailed.

Jason Brian Owen, 30, a sickness beneficiary from Kerikeri, and Adrian Hemy, 25, of Kaitaia, appeared for sentencing on drug and other charges in the High Court at Whangarei yesterday.

The district court declined jurisdiction and referred their cases to the High Court last year. Owen's 15 charges selling, possessing and offering to supply either cannabis or hashish.

He was caught selling cannabis to an undercover police officer and arranging drug deals with him through texts between June 24 and September 17, 2009.

Crown prosecutor Duncan Coleman  called for a starting point of three , saying courts must denounce Owen's offending and to protect the community.

Defence lawyer Catherine Cull  said home detention could be imposed since Owen had been attending drug counselling. 

Justice Warwick Gendall  said Owen had been financing his own addiction with small- to medium-scale drug dealing.

He sentenced him to two years' and two months' jail.

Hemi copped the same sentence on two charges of selling cannabis, two of possessing cannabis, unlawfully getting into a motor vehicle and four breaches of home detention.

Three breaches related to drug offending. He was sentenced to 10 months' home detention in January last year on three charges of burglary, two of receiving stolen property and one of male assaults female.

Justice Gendall cancelled that sentence and substituted it with two months' jail, cumulative to the two years he received for drug offending.

Hemi was also arrested during the operation after he sold cannabis to an undercover police officer.