Woman jailed for selling P

Gisborne Courthouse

A WOMAN convicted of multiple drugs charges was jailed for three years, nine months.

Maria Terina Grace Irwin, 28, pleaded guilty to two Crown-laid charges, supplying and offering to supply methamphetamine, along with police-laid charges of possessing methamphetamine for supply, possession of cannabis, and possession of drug utensils (two bongs).

The charges arose out of many occasions when Irwin supplied or offered to supply a total of 15.2 grams of methamphetamine to an undercover police officer between July and November 2015, and out of a police search of Irwin’s house on May 8 this year.

The offers to the undercover officer were evidenced by text data.

During the search, police found 13 zip-lock bags containing 2.9 grams of methamphetamine, 8.7grams of cannabis head material, 1 “tinnie” of cannabis, two large “bongs”, and other drug dealing paraphernalia — scales and point bags.

Also located was $8970 cash, of which $5000 was to be forfeited to the Crown.

Irwin was sentenced in Gisborne District Court by Judge Warren Cathcart.

For Irwin, counsel Michael Lynch submitted she had now shown some insight and remorse for her offending. She appreciated the harm it had caused to this community.

Circumstances leading to Irwin’s offending included her upbringing and exposure to drugs at home from a young age, violence, domestic abuse, and the recent death of her grandmother.

Judge Cathcart said such factors, sadly, often featured in the backgrounds of offenders who appeared in the Gisborne court.

From a starting point of 57 months, the judge applied an uplift of three months in recognition of the police-laid charges, which arose while Irwin was on bail for the Crown-laid matters.

The judge allowed discounts of four months for remorse and personal circumstances and 20 percent for Irwin’s guilty pleas.

The sentence included an uplift of one month to cover Irwin’s fines debt of $9816 which, along with a community work sentence, was cancelled.