ECSTASY ORDERED BY EMAIL

An Auckland planning manager ordered Ecstasy from Britain by email, the
High Court at Auckland heard yesterday.

Lawrence Roy Hooker, 32, from Greenlane, admitted 12 charges relating to
importing and supplying the drug MDMA (Ecstasy).

Justice Judith Potter remanded him on bail for sentencing.

According to the police summary of facts, a female associate of Hooker -
who has yet to enter a plea - received a Marks & Spencer scented candle
containing 439 Ecstasy tablets at her Henderson home last September.

When police raided the house they found the woman and Hooker repackaging
the drugs into "deal bags" for sale.

Computer experts who examined Hooker's laptop found emails to and from
another woman called Sarah Anne Josling in London ordering various amounts
and types of Ecstasy.

A tablet can fetch about $80 in Auckland, but Hooker was selling them for
half to two-thirds that price.

In one email Josling said she was paying UKP2.50 ($7.12) a tablet, and in
another that they cost her UKP2.20.

Hooker wrote saying they needed to increase supply if she was to have a
"decent nest egg" on her return to New Zealand. Josling is still believed
to be living in Britain.