When Carter caught the virus on October 23, she warned a customer she had it but still invited them around to buy meth and asked if they could take double their usual purchase amount.
Pearce became Covid positive on October 30 but also continued to supply people with the drug.
The court heard he complained to his dealer that their neighbours were watching them and “narking them off” to the police and the district health board.
Carter’s dealing was discovered when police investigated a dealer above her. She was found to be on the “next tier below” him.
Police monitored her cellphone data between September 2021 and January 2022 which revealed how many customers across Hamilton she was supplying.
The communications also revealed Pearce delivered meth for her once, and two other times provided “enforcement or debt collection services”.
However, when Carter was hospitalised with Covid-19 in January 2022, Pearce messaged their dealer and said he was “taking over operations” and asked how much they owed.
The main dealer would buy kilograms of meth from Auckland - despite the border closures - and deliver one to three-ounce quantities to the couple, usually on credit.
They would then break them down into smaller packages and on-sell them.
The couple was eventually arrested in August 2022.
Carter was buying ounces of meth for $7500 and on-selling grams for up to $500 resulting in profits of between $5100 and $6500 per ounce. However, if they sold in smaller quantities they would make even more money.
‘Substantial operation’
At their sentencing, Crown solicitor Kasey Dillon said Carter supplied 524gm of meth in the approximately 12-month period from September 2021.
“This was a substantial operation ... and occurred when people were at their most vulnerable during Covid-19 when the defendant herself got Covid and got Mr Pearce to take it over.
“On the basis of Mr Pearce taking it over, Ms Carter is still liable for the methamphetamine during that period.”
He said the amount supplied “vastly exceeds” any quantity that could be attributed to any addiction.
“What we know is that 500gm is a significant commercial operation.”
‘Overpowering meth addiction in her life’
But Carter’s counsel, Russell Boot, submitted that she played a lesser role in the operation and that there was “little or no financial gain” as the scheme was simply to feed their addiction.
She accepted full responsibility for the choices she made, the pain they have caused the community and their own family, and the “overpowering addiction of methamphetamine in her life”.
“She talks of her family who are important in her life and that she has let them down. What you have is genuine remorse for her actions and addiction is at play in this case.”
Judge Noel Cocurullo suggested the quantity of her dealing alone “must rule out home detention”, but Boot said she had strong family support and her daughter had moved from Canterbury to Hamilton in recent months to help.
He was unimpressed to see her previous convictions, pointing out that a year later she was “back distributing this nasty drug to our community in a fairly profound and significant way”.
Judge Cocurullo agreed with Dillon that the amount of the drug she was peddling “far outweighed” what could be classified as personal use.
Carter was jailed for five years and three months.
As for Pearce, Dillon accepted that he could only be responsible for the 157.75gm he sold when Carter was sick.
However, he labelled it “substantial” at “almost 80 grams a month”.
‘Remorseful that they’ve been caught’
Defence lawyer Gerard Walsh said Pearce, who has a criminal history but not for meth, was “bewildered about what he was walking into” when taking over from Carter given he had to sell a vehicle to “keep this fulla off his back”.
Pearce was also remorseful, but Judge Cocurullo said it was too late.
“It really beggars belief that these two are hellbent on peddling this misery ... that they now come along and express their remorse.
“Remorseful that they’ve been caught, Mr Walsh.
“It was the lockdown and they spun this off during lockdown. How do they now come along and say ‘I’m remorseful’?”
Walsh replied Pearce had, as time evolved, looked at their actions and “addressed things that have gone on”.
“He does feel a guilt.”
But the judge wasn’t so sure and said if they weren’t caught, it was likely that it would still be happening.
In jailing Pearce for 30 months, Judge Cocurullo took into account nine months he spent on electronically-monitored bail but declined to issue any discount for remorse.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for nine years and has been a journalist for 20.
