Gang member Michael Clark has been jailed on charges of possessing and supplying methamphetamine. Photo / Mike Scott
A man was caught dealing methamphetamine while on bail at a rehab facility and awaiting sentence for similar offending.
Michael John Benjamin Clark, who is a member of the Head Hunters gang, was stung peddling the drug during a police search of his Wairarapa home in March 2023.
Today, the Wellington District Court heard the search turned up three bags containing a total of 666g of the Class A drug, electronic scales and $37,110 in cash.
A notebook, which appeared to be a ledger with monetary amounts listed, was also found in the kitchen drawer.
According to the summary of facts, the meth had an estimated street value of around half a million dollars, with the potential to cause $730,000 in social harm.
Clark, who has previously served “a reasonably extensive prison sentence” for meth dealing, claimed the drugs were to be sold to someone else and he was simply holding them for a short period, adding that he knew nothing about the sale.
He also said there had been no gang involvement and he was acting alone.
Last year, Clark received a sentencing indication on charges of possession of methamphetamine for supply and two charges of supplying methamphetamine, stemming from the 2023 bust.
At the time of the sentencing indication and while still on bail in Auckland, Clark was in rehab at the Grace Foundation in Manurewa.
During his stay at the facility, Clark texted a Wellington woman asking if she was still working, the court heard today.
He suggested she book cheap flights to Auckland, saying he could get her work if she flew up.
In July, the woman flew to Auckland. Clark arranged for the woman to come to the Manurewa address he’d been bailed to.
The woman told him she had $5900 and $1500 in her savings account. She met Clark’s associate, collecting five ziplock bags, containing 150g of methamphetamine.
The woman was arrested at Auckland Airport and the drugs were intercepted before the woman returned to the capital.
According to a summary of facts released to NZME after sentencing, Clark then moved to Nga Kete Wananga Solutions, a residential drug rehab in Dairy Flat, which houses several individuals in a lodge-style building.
When police searched Clark’s bedroom in Dairy Flat on November 12, they found 207g of the drug inside a black bag and a pill container, along with scales, a cellphone, and $1035 cash.
Again, Clark maintained he was acting as an intermediary, claiming he’d only passed on details of someone he knew who had methamphetamine and the drugs in his room were for someone else.
But at the sentencing, Judge Noel Sainsbury wasn’t convinced, pointing out it was Clark who’d contacted the woman, giving her instructions.
“Similarly, you are in a rehab facility and you have methamphetamine in quantities and packages in a way that speaks to dealing,” he said, describing the offending as significant.
“I accept you have an addiction to methamphetamine but this goes beyond that.”
Clark’s offending resulted in two additional charges - one of supplying methamphetamine and one of possession of methamphetamine for supply.
Despite the additional charges, Clark’s lawyer, Elizabeth Hall, submitted there should be no uplift to the original sentencing indication, which had a starting point of nine years’ imprisonment.
She told the court her client has long-standing drug addiction issues and “good prospects of rehabilitation”.
Hall submitted Clark had applied himself to the rehab programme and pointed out he’d received no financial gain from the meth found in his room.
She said he was deeply committed to his family, children and partner, who supported him, and urged the judge to impose a sentence that ultimately allowed him to leave prison so he could return to his family and employment and live a more pro-social life.
But prosecutor Lee van der Lem said, given the court accepted Clark’s role in the rehab offending was significant, a cumulative sentence should be imposed.
Van der Lem said a pre-sentence report made it clear Clark was unlikely to make significant progress until he severed ties with his gang associates.
In terms of remorse, he also said Clark “had a surface-level appreciation of the harm he’d caused”.
In sentencing him, Judge Sainsbury accepted Clark’s was a standalone operation and not a gang one but rejected the assertion Clark was simply holding the drugs, saying that with his history such a suggestion was untenable.
“It is what it looks like,” he said.
The judge acknowledged Clark, who’d come from a life of privilege and opportunity, was addicted to methamphetamine.
At some point “meth got you by the throat”, he told Clark, although the judge was at a loss to explain why that was.
While he accepted Clark’s addiction was an issue in the offending, it hadn’t affected his ability to make rational choices.
He told Clark he was lucky to have a supportive family but until he moved on from the gang and his associates, little would change.
The judge adopted a sentence of seven years on the original charges and added a three-year uplift for the new offending.
He made no apologies when jailing Clark for 10 years, telling him that, given this was his third set of methamphetamine offending, “the sentences are harsh”.
The judge declined to impose a minimum period of imprisonment but ordered the destruction of the drugs, scales, cellphone and forfeiture of the cash.
The original version of this story incorrectly stated Clark’s offending while on bail all occurred while he was at the Grace Foundation. However, while his offending involving the supply of methamphetamine happened there, the possession of the drug later occurred when he was staying at Nga Kete Wananga Solutions.
Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice.