Inheritance blown on P

Glen Stevenson inherited $147,000 after his mother died - but he blew it on methamphetamine.

Now the 34-year-old P addict has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Glen Nigel Stevenson, of Tauranga, was sentenced in Tauranga District Court yesterday after earlier pleading guilty to 16 charges before the end of his jury trial last month.

The charges were one count each of possessing methamphetamine for supply and supplying methamphetamine, and seven of offering to supply the drug. He had also pleaded guilty to six counts of possessing equipment and materials used to make P and one of unlawfully possessing an air pistol.

The methamphetamine dealing charges stemmed from a police analysis of text messages sent and received by a cellphone belonging to Stevenson and a search of his then Ulster St, Mount Maunganui, rented address in October 2008.

During the search, police found 3.5g of P, a set of digital scales, 84 empty plastic deal bags, a piece of cardboard detailing drug weights and an air gun.

The other charges related to a search of Stevenson's then Manoeka Rd, Te Puke, address on March 8, 2009, where a clandestine drug laboratory was found inside two boxes in his garage.

His lawyer, Craig Tuck, told Judge Thomas Ingram his client relied on "the mercy of the court".

Mr Tuck said Stevenson had been in the grip of a raging P addiction at the time of the offending and now recognised he had been on a "one-way path to hell".

Stevenson had a raft of potential psychological and psychiatric problems which were part of his serious P habit and he had sought medical and professional help, he said. Mr Tuck urged Judge Ingram to take into account the rehabilitative steps Stevenson had taken, his guilty pleas, remorse and the time lag since his offending.

Judge Ingram told Stevenson he accepted he was in the grasp of P addiction at the time of his offending, which had "effectively cost you everything you held dear in life".

But the judge said prison was inevitable given he had been involved in commercial dealing, albeit some of which was to feed his own habit, and it was an aggravating factor that he had re-offended on bail in such a serious way.