Oamaru 'drug shop' couple jailed

An Oamaru couple have been jailed for selling cannabis, morphine, ecstasy, methadone and ritalin from their home. File photo / NZ Herald

A young Oamaru couple who admitted a raft of 234 drug related charges, were sent to jail by Judge Ron Young in the High Court at Timaru today,

Adam James Caldwell, 23, was sentenced to three years and nine months and Christine Daphne McLaren to two years and three months for their part in what Judge Young called serious drug offending involving the sale of morphine, ecstasy, methadone, ritalin and cannabis from their Exe St house.

The court had been told the couple operated the house as a "drug shop", where people bought drugs and regularly used them.

Judge Young took into account their guilty pleas when deciding the sentences.

Although the amounts sold were small in value - between $50 and $100 - there had been a large number of sales, he said.

There was no way of knowing how much money was involved but it would have amounted to "many thousands of dollars".

He said an aggravating factor for Caldwell, the principal offender, was that he had been serving a community-based sentence on dishonesty charges when the drug offences were committed.

He noted Caldwell said his offending was to supply his own drug addiction and not for profit.

A submission from defence counsel Michael De Buyzer for a home detention sentence for McLaren was declined by Judge Young.

McLaren had driven Caldwell around Oamaru buying, selling and delivering drugs as he was disqualified from driving. She had also sold drugs while Caldwell was absent from their home.

"This was not minor offending and a home detention sentence is not appropriate," the judge said.

Judge Young said the police summary of evidence showed a total of 234 offences between March 18 and April 8 last year.

Police had intercepted more than 5000 text messages on a cellphone shared by the couple and a large proportion of the calls were related to drug dealing.

He said the couple had not cared who they sold drugs to, with one of their customers being only 14 years-old but it had been an unsophisticated operation with no attempt made to hide what they were doing.

- NZPA