Crown wants drug deal cash

Former pharmacist Samuel Ross Pulman, 70, is sentenced to a prison term of five years. Photo / Paul Estcourt

The pharmacist jailed for his role in supplying a drug ring with pseudoephedrine could lose $129,000.

In the High Court at Auckland, Ross Pulman was sent to prison for five years and eight months after pleading guilty to a representative charge of manufacturing methamphetamine, also known as P.

He was caught in an undercover police operation that filmed him selling 1291 boxes of cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine. The drug is used to make P.

The Crown is now applying under the Criminal Proceeds Recovery Act to seize $129,000, which police say is the amount of money Pulman made from selling the cold medicine.

Pulman told the Herald in August that he did not make a cent from the cash transactions and believed he was helping in a police undercover operation.

Police CCTV footage showed Pulman taking $100 cash for a box of medicine which would normally cost about $30.

Police told the Herald in August that the medicine sold by Pulman could have produced 1.3kg of P - worth up to $1.3 million on the street.

Shortly before sentencing, Justice Edwin Wylie said the Crown had not been able to prove that Pulman had made money from selling the medicine but said "it is unlikely that Mr Pulman obtained no financial benefit from the transactions".

Pulman's lawyer, Kristin Cato, said four parties were likely to oppose the seizure of assets. They are understood to be connected to the Pukekohe pharmacy that Pulman used to own.