The former general manager of Illuminati night club has been found guilty of twice offering to supply the drug ecstasy.
It took the jury about two hours to convict Bianca Mare, 37, in Tauranga District Court yesterday on two counts of offering to supply the supply the Class B controlled drug MDMA or ecstasy at the conclusion of her trial which began on Monday afternoon.
The charges stem from a police search at Mare's Links Avenue home on November 30, 2010 and an subsequent police investigation which included analysing a series of text messages sent and received from a cellphone which Mare confirmed belonged to her.
Mare was one of four people arrested that day and charged in relation to their respective roles in what police say was an ecstasy dealing ring operating in Mount Maunganui.
Crown prosecutor Rob Ronayne told the jury that two text messages in particular formed the basis of the two charges, the first was sent to an unknown person on October 7 and read "Grey Vs $50, more?" which relates to Mare offer to supply the drug for $50 a tablet and the question mark was her questioning how many pills the receiver wanted to buy.
Grey Vs is a codename for the particular colour-coded ecstasy pills.
The other text was made two days later and related to Mare trying to secure a bag of cannabis for $250.
She told the respondent she had some money stolen from her car and the dope seller agreed that she could top up the cash shortfall with some z's (another code name for ecstasy, and the accused has accepted the request through her offer to "suss it out".
Mr Ronayne said whether the contract to deliver the drug was completed or not was irrelevant, as all the elements of offering to supply a Class B controlled drug had been made out.
The jury was also shown an edited version of the video interview conducted by Detective Diane Lewis conducted with the accused at the Tauranga police station on November 30 during which Mare acknowledged she was user of cannabis and ecstasy pills from time to time.
When questioned by Ms Lewis at the police station about these text messages Mare responded that she could not guarantee the texts were made by her because on October 7, 2010, which was her birthday, she had drunk heavily throughout the day.
However she admitted she had been seeking to buy dope and Grey Vs for herself but denied offering to supply anyone with ecstasy.
Mare told the detective and the jury that any number of the 18-30 people who attended her birthday celebrations held at a local bar could have sent the texts as her phone was not in her possession several times throughout that day.
She denied that any of the text messages she had sent had anything to do with offering to supply ecstasy.
Under questioning from her lawyer Craig Tuck, Mare claimed her response to the second text message by agreeing to "suss it out" was merely her attempt to "fob off" the other person.
The Crown prosecutor told the jury that Mare's evidence was just nonsense and was inconsistent with what she told police and urged the jury to apply their collective common sense and reject her testimony.
The jury delivered unanimous guilty verdicts at 10.44am yesterday. Mare was further remanded on bail and will be sentenced on November 18.