Judge to 18yo meth dealer: 'I can show you the door, you have to walk through it'

Judge Gordon Matenga, who in Napier District Court on Friday sentenced a teen drug dealer to home detention. Photo / File

A teenager who got caught-up with some big players in the Hawke's Bay methamphetamine trade has been granted home detention for offences which carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

James Morris, not yet 19 and with family waiting anxiously in the public gallery as he appeared in Napier District Court on Friday, was sentenced to 11 months' home detention, departing with a sound warning from Judge Gordon Matenga, not only for himself but also others who might drift into the clutch of the drugs and the trade.

He had pleaded guilty to charges of supplying methamphetamine and possessing cannabis for supply – with 28.5g and several ounces of cannabis identified in Morris's street-level operation as part of a much wider police investigation.

Judge Matenga highlighted the seriousness by pointing-out the charges were "representative", covering repeated offences over a period of time.

"It's alarming to see you at age 18 offending in this way," said the Judge.

"Once these drugs get their hooks into you they will never leave. They will always be an issue for you.

"I can show you the door, but you are the person who has to walk through it," Judge Matenga continued, describing Morris as "clearly" an intelligent young man who had fallen off the tracks and needed to get back on.

The Judge needed some gymnastic arithmetic to avoid sending Morris to jail, calculating a penalty down from a starting point of three-and-a-half years to 23 months, dipping one month under the threshold of two years at which Judges are able to consider home detention as an option.

Crown prosecutor Cam Stuart the teenager had become "associated with some of the most serious methamphetamine dealers in the region,"