CROWN FAILS IN BID TO BLOCK JAIL-AT-HOME

A Northland woman has been given leave to apply for home detention despite
Crown pleas for a clear message to the community that selling drugs from
home is not acceptable.

Billie Loretta Te Rangi Wahapapa, 42, of Kamo, admitted two charges of
selling cannabis on January 21 and 29 this year.

She was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment on each charge, to be served
concurrently, but was granted leave to apply for home detention.

Defence lawyer Dave Sayes told Whangarei District Court that Te Rangi
Wahapapa had been honest and co-operated with police when arrested.

He asked Judge Semi Epati to grant leave to apply for home detention and
that the matter be deferred.

Crown prosecutor Peter Magee said Te Rangi Wahapapa had sold a cannabis
"tinnie" to undercover police from her home.

"The message needs to be clear ... that if these people use their property
for the conduit or base for selling tinnies they will go to jail and home
detention will not be granted," Mr Magee said.

"It is inappropriate to grant leave for home detention. It simply sends the
wrong message."

Judge Epati said Te Rangi Wahapapa was arrested during a police sting,
Operation Snap, that targeted known tinnie houses from which drugs were sold.

In the two-week undercover operation police went to 25 addresses around
Northland where they were offered illegal drugs.

In January, Te Rangi Wahapapa sold an undercover officer who went to her
house a $20 cannabis tinnie.

Judge Epati said it was obviously a commercial operation, but at the lower
end of the scale.

The court was told that Te Rangi Wahapapa had a seriously ill husband who
needed her round-the-clock care and a young child.

Mr Magee said she was in the same situation before she was arrested but it
had not deterred her from selling drugs.

Judge Epati said that on humanitarian grounds it would not be appropriate
to decline leave to apply for home detention.

The sentence was deferred for two months which meant Te Rangi Wahapapa was
free until the Parole Board had considered her request for home detention.