Drug dealer caught fleeing tsunami

When the tsunami warning came, Richard Carlson knew he had to get his cannabis stash to higher ground.

So he had nearly 8kg of the drug in his car when police spotted his broken tail light and pulled him over.

"These facts, with respect, could only happen on the East Coast," Judge Tony Adeane said in Gisborne District Court yesterday.

The facts lay "between irony and farce", said the judge.

Carlson, 57, pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis for supply and was sentenced to 12 months' home detention.

Judge Adeane said Carlson's vehicle was stopped on September 30 on the corner of Te Araroa and Waiomatitini Rds, just south of Te Araroa township, where police found 7.9kg of cannabis in 15 plastic bags. Carlson said he was moving the cannabis because of a tsunami warning. The cannabis was mouldy but would have been worth $40,000 in good condition.

Carlson was not a character replete with criminal convictions, as was normally the case in such matters, the judge said. But the court would not condone such offending or encourage a situation where offending of that nature was lionised.

Counsel Doug Rishworth said Carlson was active in the community. There was a drug culture in the region, which was difficult to reconcile with a man of his character.

Crown prosecutor Jo Rielly said the cannabis was not in good condition. There was no evidence of sales and police were not looking for the accused.

It had been a random arrest. Carlson was relocating the cannabis and there was an element of hoarding.

"It defies rational explanation."

Carlson was considered to present a low risk of re-offending, she said.

He was a community man who had placed himself in this predicament.

- NZPA