Childcare worker sentenced for importing P

A childcare worker who imported P into New Zealand from South Africa will serve six months' home detention.

Haley Carol Jacobs, 37, was sentenced in the Auckland District Court today after she last year admitted a charge of importing methamphetamine.

She was caught when Customs intercepted a package at the International Mail Centre in Auckland on July 24 that contained 8 grams of the class A drug.

The drugs were wrapped in four small plastic bags inside a CD case, sent from Cape Town.

When Customs officers searched Jacobs' Christchurch home a week later, they found drug paraphernalia, including three glass meth pipes, and eight empty point bags containing methamphetamine residue.

It was then discovered that she had imported small amounts of the dangerous drug on several occasions from January last year until her actions were uncovered.

Jacobs originally appeared in court in Christchurch where she worked at an early childhood centre that cannot be named for legal reasons before he sentencing was transferred north.

The centre has previously confirmed to APNZ that Jacobs resigned shortly after her arrest from her job, which she'd held for about a month.

Outside court today, Jacobs declined to comment on her sentencing.

Although her practising certificate expired in December, Jacobs still appears on the New Zealand register of teachers, with a note saying she has voluntarily agreed not to teach pending the completion of a conduct investigation.

Teachers Council director Peter Lind said the organisation was yet to receive official notification of Jacobs' conviction. Once that happened, a formal process would begin.

``That doesn't mean to say it has to be delayed in any type of way.''

Dr Lind said in the case of disgraced former Northland deputy principal James Parker, sentenced to preventive detention for sexually abusing pupils, the disciplinary committee acted quickly via teleconference to remove his registration. That could happen in Jacobs' case.