Three men have been jailed for unrelated and separate roles in drug dealing in Hawke's Bay.
The three were each sentenced when they appeared before Judge Raoul Neave in Napier District Court yesterday.
The longest term was imposed on 27-year-old Alan Christopher Haliday who was sentenced to three years and one month in prison on one charge of supplying methamphetamine and two of possessing methamphetamine for supply, after being found with 19.88g of methamphetamine and $7190 of drug dealing proceeds. The judge ordered the forfeiture of the cash.
According to a summary, police were dealing with a suspicious vehicle in Marewa St early on the morning of January 3 last year when a search revealed Haliday had 13 zip-lock bags containing methamphetamine. Police also found the cash in $20 and $50 notes.
The previous day he had travelled by bus to Napier and supplied a similar bag to an associate who picked him up on arrival, the summary said.
Judge Neave rejected a submission from defence counsel Eric Forster that some consideration of a ruling that the search had been unlawful, saying that the Court of Appeal considered while it was unlawful, by a technicality, it was not unreasonable. The Judge did however take into account the fact that Haliday had been on restricted bail for over a year while the proceedings were delayed.