Daniel Managh was one month off completing his sentence of home detention when more than $6000 worth of cannabis was found at the house where he was serving the sentence, the Rotorua District Court has been told.
The 18-year-old Rotorua panelbeater appeared in court this week after previously pleading guilty to a charge of possession of cannabis for supply and a charge of breaching home detention.
Judge Phillip Cooper sentenced Managh to 13 months' jail.
Judge Cooper said that in June last year Managh was given a "lenient" sentence of 10 months' home detention and 300 hours' community work on charges of sexual violation and indecency.
One of the conditions of Managh's home detention was that he was not to possess or use alcohol or drugs.
On March 5, police searched the property where Managh was serving home detention and found 502g of cannabis head and plant. About 293g of cannabis was found in ounce-lot snaplock bags. Also found were two capsules of cannabis oil and two freshly-harvested cannabis plants, which had been stripped. The cannabis head found was worth more than $6000.
Managh's lawyer, Brian Foote, told the court Managh bought two cannabis plants and stripped them to sell some cannabis to make some money. He said most of the cannabis was for Managh's own use. There was a low level of commerciality involved.
Mr Foote said home detention had been a very difficult sentence for Managh as he did not have much to fill his days. Managh had been co-operative with police and had pleaded guilty.
Mr Foote handed a letter to the judge in which Managh expressed remorse. Mr Foote asked the judge to take into account Managh's young age and naivety.
Judge Cooper told Managh that when someone offended in a serious way while on home detention the only other option was jail.
Judge Cooper said the amount of cannabis involved was reasonably significant and a starting point was 15 months' jail but reduced the sentence to 13 months to give Managh credit for his guilty plea.
According to the Department of Corrections offenders on home detention must wear an electronic anklet to monitor their whereabouts at all times. If they try to remove the anklet or leave the monitored property without permission an alarm is triggered and a security guard is sent to the address.
A Department of Corrections spokeswoman told The Daily Post offenders on home detention must report to their probation officer at least twice every 10 working days and on at least one of those occasions the probation officer will visit the offender at his or her home.
She said probation officers do not search offenders' houses.
"The role of the probation officer is to ensure offenders comply with the requirements of their sentence of home detention. Probation officers take prompt and appropriate enforcement action when the offender does not comply," the spokeswoman said.
"We are satisfied that appropriate and timely action was taken when police identified that this offender possessed cannabis for supply."