Nabbed with illegal drugs after refusing to leave Hastings bar

Bags of methamphetamine found by police in one bust several years ago. Drugs found in Hastings incident 13 months ago turned not to be methamphetamine, but Class B drug MDMA. Photo / File

A deportee from Australia could have walked away when police were called to an incident in a Hastings bar.

But, resisting a police invitation to leave, Denzil Rawiri Kapene Te Amo was, according to a police summary, "searched pursuant to arrest" and had to reveal what he had in his bag.

Contents included eight "point-bags" of Class B drug MDMA weighing in at 7.9 grams and five zip-lock bags containing 12.21 grams of cannabis, possibly worth more than $3000 at "current street value," police say.

Details were revealed when the 28-year-old appeared in Napier District Court today, and was sentenced to six months' community detention having pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing MDMA for supply and one of possessing cannabis for sale.

The discoveries were made when Te Amo was arrested close to midnight on December 21, 2019. Delays in the prosecution included testing which revealed the MDMA substance was not methamphetamine as police initially suspected and various impacts of Covid-19 alert levels.

Judge Mackintosh noted Kapene Te Aho had been in Australia for many years.

She been given no details of any offending in Australia, when she would have expected details if it had been relevant, gave the defendant the "benefit of the doubt" and accepted the Crown may see the penalty as being lenient.

Told that he was an expectant dad it would give him the chance to maintain his employment, she said. He had no previous criminal record in New Zealand.