Swedish drink spiker jailed

Photo / Greg Bowker

A Swedish tourist has been jailed for a year for supplying a class B drug that resulted in four Napier people being hospitalised.

Hannibal Claes Tranell, 30, had previously pleaded guilty to four charges of supplying a Class B controlled drug to four people in the Cri Bar and Grill in Napier, on December 4 last year.

He told one or more of the four victims that liquid in a small bottle that he produced was a natural herbal substance and all four consumed some in their drinks during the evening.

Two collapsed on the dance floor with one victim convulsing and stopping breathing. He was revived by CPR administered by another bar patron.

A third victim collapsed in the bar toilets and a fourth was unconscious in a room upstairs.

The substance was found to be GHB, also known as GBL or fantasy.

Tranell's lawyer, Jonathan Krebs told the Hastings District Court today that his client had not set out to hurt anyone or approach the victims with any predatory sexual intent.

Noting that the drug was legal in Sweden and not even classified as a drug in Poland, Mr Krebs said the situation was not dissimilar to a New Zealander arriving in Greece with a codeine substance and finding there it was a restricted drug.

His client's intention had been to be sociable to the four people he met in the bar that night. Tranell was not experimenting with the drug, and was familiar with the correct dosage for recreational use. However he had not expected the adverse effects on the four victims.

Tranell was well educated, came from a good family and had a successful marketing career with a Swedish telecoms company.

Judge Alistair Garland said there was no actual evidence of how much of the drug the victims had consumed and it was possible one of those victims, who had the bottle containing the drug in his jacket when he collapsed, might also have added it to the others' drinks during the evening.

He described the charges as serious but Tranell's offending at the low to moderate level, with no commercial gain evident.

Judge Garland said the accused's motive for supplying the drug appeared to have been to improve his chances of consensual sexual liaisons.

While Tranell might not have been solely responsible for the adverse effects the drug had on the victims, he was broadly responsible because he had made it available and had misled them about its true nature.

The court was told that the Immigration Department had today served a removal order on Tranell which would mean he would be deported after serving his prison sentence.

- NZPA