More than $6000 worth of cannabis was found at the house of a Rotorua teen - one month before he completed a sentence of home detention, a court has heard.
Panelbeater Daniel Managh, 18, appeared before Rotorua District Court this week after previously pleading guilty to one charge of possession of cannabis for supply and another of breaching home detention.
Judge Phillip Cooper sentenced him 13 months in jail.
Judge Cooper said last June last year Managh was given a "lenient" sentence of 10 months of home detention and 300 hours of community work on charges of sexual violation and indecency.
One of the conditions of his home detention was that he was not to possess or use alcohol or drugs.
On March 5, police searched the property where Managh was serving home detention and found 502g of cannabis head and plant. About 293g of cannabis was found in ounce-lot snaplock bags. Also found were two capsules of cannabis oil and two freshly-harvested cannabis plants, which had been stripped. The cannabis head found was worth more than $6000.
Managh's lawyer, Brian Foote, told the court Managh bought two cannabis plants and stripped them to sell some cannabis to make some money. Most of the cannabis was for Managh's own use.
Mr Foote said home detention had been very difficult for Managh because he did not have much to fill his days. Managh had been co-operative with police and had pleaded guilty.
Mr Foote handed a letter to the judge in which Managh expressed remorse. Mr Foote asked the judge to take into account Managh's young age and naivety.
Judge Cooper said when someone offended in a serious way while on home detention the only other option was jail.
The amount of cannabis involved was reasonably significant and a starting point was 15 months in jail. He reduced the sentence to 13 months because of Managh's guilty plea.
A Department of Corrections spokeswoman said offenders on home detention must report to their probation officer at least twice every 10 working days and on at least one of those occasions the probation officer will visit the offender at home.
She said probation officers do not search offenders' houses.
"The role of the probation officer is to ensure offenders comply with the requirements of their sentence of home detention. Probation officers take prompt and appropriate enforcement action when the offender does not comply," the spokeswoman said.
"We are satisfied that appropriate and timely action was taken when police identified that this offender possessed cannabis for supply."