Meth-dealing mum jailed for more than two years

File photo / Bay of Plenty Times

A Northland mother described as a "busy street level methamphetamine dealer" has been jailed for more than two years.

Nicole Lea Cochrane, 27, was arrested following a police operation named Fender where police initially investigated people suspected of rural burglaries.

Officers obtained warrants to intercept phone calls and cellphone text messages and soon realised these people were also involved in drug dealing.

Cochrane pleaded guilty to 13 representative charges of conspiring to supply methamphetamine between March and August 2009.

When police searched her home they found a "tick book" recording drug sales and who had and hadn't paid.

In the High Court at Whangarei Justice Graham Lang said Cochrane had been using a good deal of methamphetamine while she was a busy, street-level dealer.

"You must know by now the menace methamphetamine has become. It destroys families and the the fabric of our society. It cause people top commit crimes they would not other wise do," Justice Lang said.

"You are a living example of the problem methamphetamine causes in our society."

She was sentenced to two years and two months jail.

Meanwhile, Jonelle Rachel Phillips, 28, of Paihia, also arrested during Operation Fender will spend her punishment at home.

She pleaded guilty to 13 charges of conspiring to sell methamphetamine between March and August 2009. She also admitted possession of LSD.

Justice Lang sentenced her to 10 months home detention, to be served at a different house to where the offending happened.