Woman jailed for dealing drugs at Rotorua Lotto store

A woman who dealt drugs from a central Rotorua Lotto store has been sentenced to more than six years in prison.

Jaime Clare Hyde, 30, of Rotorua appeared in the High Court at Auckland today for sentencing.

She was found to have supplied $408,000 worth of methamphetamine and in June pleaded guilty to five charges relating to supply and possession of methamphetamine and ecstasy.

Sentencing her to six years and four months in prison, Justice Graham Lang described her drug dealing as significant, saying she was a busy dealer during the time of her offending and the amount she was selling meant she was ``operating one level above a street dealer''.

Two months ago Hyde gave birth to a child and is also mother of a 3-year-old, the court was told.

The charges relate to offending between September and October last year.

During that time she sold methamphetamine from her parents' Lucky Lottery Shop on Tutanekai St in Rotorua where she worked and from her Taupo apartment.

She sold drugs largely to fund her own drug habit and ``by no means had a lavish lifestyle'', her lawyer told the court.

The offending was a significant fall from grace, she previously worked at BNZ, was a talented fashion designer and had made a valuable contribution to society.

``She's fallen a great deal from the lofty positions she had achieved some years ago when she was working at the bank and was on a high.''

An earlier court hearing was told text messages sent and received by Hyde and intercepted by police showed she was offering to supply buyers with methamphetamine, and to a lesser extent, ecstasy.

Messages on several occasions discussed buying several ounces worth of the methamphetamine from an Auckland source, according to the summary of facts.

Hyde told the buyer the price of the drug cost $14,000 for an ounce, $8000 for half an ounce, $4500 for quarter of an ounce and $650 for a gram.

She would also meet buyers in Rotorua and Taupo..

A police search of Hyde's Taupo home revealed a container in a shoe box with 11 hypodermic syringes and two hypodermic needles which had traces of methamphetamine, tick lists relating to drug deals and other related paraphernalia.

The Crown conservatively estimated the amount of methamphetamine Hyde supplied at about 408g.

One gram of the drug sells for between $600 and $1000.

Hyde was arrested at Auckland International Airport as she was about to board a plane to Perth for a two-week holiday.