Another “shopkeeper” Diane Winter, 35, was jailed earlier this month for her role in the drug ring and other offending, including her extortion of a local businessman.
The $50,000 found on Michael Hubbard by police who busted the ring caused some dispute at the start of the sentencing hearing. Prosecutor Michael Blaschke said he believed it was already subject to a forfeiture order and if not, he wanted the court to impose one. The Crown believed it was money associated with the meth sales.
However, counsel Eric Forster said Hubbard claimed the money was “hard-earned savings” and that there were people at the house who were more operative in the network than him. Mr Forster said he understood the dispute was going to be argued at civil proceedings.
Mr Blaschke said the Crown wanted to proceed with the sentencing, rather than risk it being adjourned due to the dispute. The sum of money involved was significant enough that the Crown could chase it through the civil court.
Mr Forster said Hubbard got caught up in the drug ring after his grandparents’ died. Having been reliant on them for so long, he reached out to other family but became embroiled in their offending.
A cultural report provided some interesting background and showed that for someone of little means, Michael Hubbard had done “really well” in life. He had shown himself to be academically able at school, albeit he found the school environment difficult, had been regularly employed since, and was well versed in te reo Māori and tikanga.
Hubbard should get some sentence discount for background factors due to the connection between his offending and deprivation he suffered growing up, Mr Forster said.
He had done well to manage his health after a significant medical condition and knew he had to maintain his abstinence from meth if he is to stay well.
A return to any involvement with meth would be more life-threatening for Hubbard than any other people, Mr Forster said.
Setting a sentence starting point of three years imprisonment for the charges collectively, Judge Cathcart took into account the quantity of drugs involved and Hubbard’s role in the offending. The judge accepted Hubbard was holding the drugs for others and was motivated in the offending by the access it gave him to the drugs for personal use.
Of importance to the firearms offence was that there was no assertive gang connotation and it wasn’t loaded.
The judge gave Hubbard a full 25 percent (nine months) discount for his guilty pleas and a further six months discount for a combination of mitigating factors, including Hubbard’s meth addiction, his health issues, and his impoverished upbringing.
It was appropriate to convert the end prison term to home detention as the least restrictive outcome, Judge Cathcart said.
Read More: www.gisborneherald.co.nz/news/woman-jailed-for-meth-addiction-driven-extortion
www.gisborneherald.co.nz/news/more-court-appearances-after-meth-bust
