• Looker became a drug courier due to financial struggles after a string of setbacks in his life and business.
• The Court of Appeal reduced his sentence, considering his addiction as a mitigating factor.
A man lost his hotel business and his marriage, then had a heart attack and lost his ability to work.
When pursued by Inland Revenue for tax bills he couldn’t pay, Tony John Looker turned to being a drug courier as a way out of his financial woes.
Eventually, he also lost his liberty.
He had driven the day before from Tauranga to New Plymouth with a consignment of meth – right into the middle of an operation being conducted by the Taranaki police’s organised crime unit.
Looker later pleaded guilty to a single charge of supplying meth, a Class A drug, and was jailed for five years and six months. He appealed against that sentence to the Court of Appeal, which has just reduced his prison term to four years and three months.
Looker’s motivation for becoming a drug courier arose from his financial struggles and his own meth addiction, which drew him into mixing with criminals who suggested he take up a role in their drug enterprise.
Courier job seemed ideal
Looker said he had previously had a job driving trucks, and if the opportunity they offered was "just to be the driver", then that seemed ideal.
It also seemed to be a way out of his money woes, which began with a failed business owning and managing a hotel in Cambridge in 2000.
The work involved long hours and high pressure, and he began taking meth. He later told a probation officer that the drug "seemed to make things work better".
But the combination of factors also led to the failure of his marriage, the insolvency of his business, and large personal claims against him by Inland Revenue.
By then he was using meth to cope and mask his feelings.
He tried to break away from the drug community by buying a property in Tauranga, closer to family. He suffered a heart attack on the day he moved into it which left him unable to work.
Soon afterwards, his former wife returned from Australia and made a relationship property claim, which further compounded his financial problems.
Looker began renting out the house he had bought and lived in the shed. But the rental income wasn’t enough to cover his mortgage payments.
Meth again provided fleeting refuge from his financial stress but drew him back into the company of criminal associates.
According to his sentencing judge, they became aware of his financial situation and suggested the driving role in their drug ring, which Looker saw as "easy money" and a way out of his dilemma.
On October 12, 2023, Looker made a delivery of 588g of meth to Taranaki drug dealer Anthony Richards.
He stayed at Richards' house overnight, unaware that it was being monitored by police.
Richards – who was later charged and jailed for eight years for his part in the transaction – gave Looker $113,000 in cash, which was intended for the supplier higher up the chain, and 44g of meth for his own use.
Looker left Richards' house at 11.50am on October 13 and was stopped by police shortly afterwards. The cash and the 44g of meth was found in his car.
$2000 a trip
Looker told the officers he was being paid $2000 a trip to deliver meth to Richards.
The Appeal Court decision does not specify how many runs Looker had made before he was caught.
Looker’s counsel brought the appeal against his sentence on grounds which included that the sentencing judge had placed it in the wrong category of seriousness, and had not given sufficient credit for his addiction as a mitigating factor.
However, the Court of Appeal justices said the judge had not mischaracterised his offending when he said it was "at the lower end of playing a significant role".
"He was more than a mere courier," the Appeal Court decision said.
"He was a trusted link in a distribution chain who, with eyes wide open and with a view to mitigating his financial position, was cognisant of the size and nature of the enterprise he was engaged in."
However, they said the judge’s characterisation of Looker’s meth use as a "lifestyle choice" overlooked the extremely addictive nature of the drug and the consequences of addiction – a chronic relapsing disorder characterised by compulsive drug seeking and use despite adverse consequences.
They said his addiction to methamphetamine was a mitigating factor.
The Appeal Court set aside the sentence of five years and six months in prison and substituted a sentence of four years and three months.
By Ric Stevens
