Drug dealer loses bids to get 16-year jail term reduced
06 December 2005
A drug dealer has failed to have a 16 years' jail sentence reduced
for bringing methamphetamine worth up to $650,000 into the country.
Allan Tony Murphy, a 44-year-old former Lost Breed motorcycle gang
member, was found guilty in the High Court at Auckland of importing
650gm of methamphetamine, possessing the drug for supply and
conspiring to make a further shipments.
He was arrested after South African national Vanessa Amore Reynecke
was found with the drugs concealed within a false lid in her
suitcase at Auckland International Airport after arriving from
Malaysia in May 2004.
Reynecke agreed to requests by custom officers to deliver the drugs
as planned and police wired her Auckland hotel room with a video
camera.
Murphy, a Nelson beneficiary, was stopped leaving the hotel with the
suitcase after being filmed failing to pry it open with two knives.
Justice Simon France sentenced Murphy in June this year to a total
of 16 years' jail with a non-parole period of nine years.
Murphy's lawyer Maria Pecotic appealed the sentence on the grounds
the judge's starting point of 14 years was manifestly excessive.
AdvertisementAdvertisementThe addition of two years' jail for the
conspiracy charge was also excessive because the planned importation
never took place, she told the Court of Appeal.
The judge failed to give Murphy any discount for mitigating factors
which included: the effect of his imprisonment on his wife and three
children; his achievements in the fishing industry until his work
was abruptly ended by a knee injury; and his drug problems which
needed addressing, Ms Pecotic said.
However, in its reserved decision released yesterday, Justices
Robert Chambers, Hugh Williams and Rodney Hansen said none of the
factors identified by Ms Pecotic were mitigating factors in drug
cases.
The sentence was not manifestly excessive and the appeal was
dismissed.