A meth dealer continued selling drugs even while on bail and after his partner had kicked him out of the house, a court has heard.
Joshua Grant Bottle (30) was supplying the class-A substance to buyers for a year — making $30,000 — until his arrest in September 2020.
The Dunedin District Court heard this week that when the defendant was granted bail by a judge he simply continued his illicit enterprise.
When his partner asked him to leave home, Bottle holed himself up in a caravan and carried on.
Police executed a search warrant there on October 8, 2020, and found the property was covered by several CCTV cameras, which fed footage to a monitor inside the temporary dwelling.
Inside officers seized $6360 in cash, three glass pipes, snap-lock bags, digital scales and an air pistol.
Counsel Len Andersen KC said his client’s crimes were driven by his addiction to methamphetamine.
Bottle, he said, had been employed in the roofing industry until a shoulder injury laid him up for an extended period.
On ACC and with time on his hands, the drug use and dealing began. Bottle admitted that at the peak of his addiction he was using up to 3g ($1800) of meth a day.
"It’s seen the destruction of families, it’s seen deaths and it appears that you were quite prepared to advance your own interests by selling methamphetamine randomly around the streets of Dunedin. And it nearly destroyed you," Judge Kevin Phillips said.
After Bottle’s arrest, his family funded private residential rehabilitation in Auckland but when he suffered a bereavement he relapsed and was locked up.
Mr Andersen said his client had spent about two years behind bars as the case progressed through the courts.
Bottle eventually pleaded guilty to possessing and supplying methamphetamine, as well as a charge of receiving relating to a BMW.
When police analysed his bank records they found numerous unexplained deposits.
Over the year-long period of offending, Bottle was averaging sales of a gram of meth every week, Judge Phillips said.
Despite the background, he believed the defendant — with the support of his family — had the potential to turn his life around.
Bottle was sentenced to 12 months’ intensive supervision.
