Tauranga drug dealer sentenced to four years jail for dealing methamphetamine and cannabis

A 42-year-old Tauranga man has been convicted of drug and violence charges. Photo / NZME

A Tauranga gang member convicted of a raft of offences ranging from supplying methamphetamine to strangling a woman has been sentenced in the Tauranga District Court.

The man, 42, whose name is suppressed, was sentenced to four years and two months in prison by Judge Louis Bidois. The sentence was the result of 11 charges, three of which related to supplying drugs.

The charges stemmed from a 2019 raid on the man's property, where police discovered methamphetamine and cannabis with a street value of thousands.

The drug charges included possession of methamphetamine and cannabis for supply and supplying meth.

An additional charge of possession of MDMA or ecstasy for supply was withdrawn after the Crown offered no evidence.

The man, who pleaded guilty to the charges in July last year, was also convicted of violence offences including male assaults female, assault with intent to injure, injuring with intent to injure and strangulation.

The assaults included pulling the victim by the hair, stomping and kicking her, and strangling her for a number of minutes, the court heard.

"She says this offending has drastically changed the course of her life," Judge Bidois said.

"She describes her life as broken."

The man was also sentenced for breaching a protection order and perverting the course of justice after contacting the victim five times attempting to dissuade her from giving evidence.

Judge Bidois said the defendant tried to entice the complainant not to turn up to court, and offered her a large sum of money.

The man's lawyer, Scott McColgan, said the defendant's violence was provoked by the victim smashing a bottle over his head causing a fracture, which led to him lashing out.

"It was the trigger for violence that might not have happened without that."

McColgan also pointed to the man's heavy use of drugs such as methamphetamine, which he was selling to support his own addiction.

"With the debilitating effects of his addiction, [he] was just unable to cope," McColgan said.

The man had used drugs to cope with his trauma but he had also sought addiction help from a number of providers, the court heard.

Crown prosecutor Justine Sutton told the court the offending justified a starting point of eight years in jail, with another four months for offending while on bail, before mitigating factors were considered.

The offending was serious because it included "attempts to pervert the course of justice".

A 10 per cent discount for a guilty pleas was appropriate, she said.

In his sentence, Judge Bidois acknowledged the man's early guilty plea, as well as what he viewed as genuine remorse with a 20 per cent sentence discount.

In total, the man was sentenced to four months and two years imprisonment.