Student tried to sell E to fund exchange

The pills were intercepted at Auckland International Airport mail centre. Photo / File

A Dunedin student who was going to sell ecstasy tablets to help fund a one-year scholarship to a Canadian university is hoping to escape a drugs conviction.

Avani Oliver Martin Maan, 18, appeared in Dunedin District Court yesterday and admitted procuring the Class B drug on March 21.

His lawyer asked for the case to be adjourned for an application for a discharge without conviction.

The court was told Maan had arranged for a friend to order ecstasy tablets for him from an online site and have them sent directly from overseas to his Dunedin address. His intention was to sell them locally.

But the three envelopes in which the 165 tablets were concealed were intercepted by New Zealand Customs staff at the Auckland International Airport mail centre on March 2, prosecutor Sergeant Graeme Evans said.

The tablets were tested and identified as MDMA (ecstasy), a class B controlled drug.

When police spoke to Maan, he said he had decided to order the pills because he needed money to help fund a 12-month scholarship to the University of British Columbia in Canada. He said he knew about the site as he had visited it previously and he had discussed the online order with his friend.

Judge Jane Farish remanded Maan, without a conviction, to reappear on June 5.