A meth dealer will spend more time in prison for refusing to leave his cell and explain where he got $45,000 cash and a vintage motorbike.
Desmond Galvin-Taikato, 33, appeared by video-link from custody in the Dunedin District Court yesterday and admitted a rare charge of failing to comply with orders and search warrants.
The court heard the defendant was serving a four-year, seven-month prison sentence for supplying methamphetamine.
On March 10, a judge issued an examination order under proceeds-of-crime legislation, forcing him to meet with police.
The order sought an explanation about $45,450 seized from him at an Auckland residential rehabilitation facility and the acquisition of vehicles, including a 1957 Ford Fairlane.
Police also wanted him to identify the origin of cash in his bank and his involvement and profits from his drug dealing.
The order required the defendant to attend Otago Corrections Facility on April 8 and on other unspecified occasions.
When police showed up to serve Galvin-Taikato with the order, he refused to come out of his cell to meet them.
A Corrections worker had to serve the order on him, and also gave him documentation explaining his rights and that he could have a lawyer present during the examination process.
On April 10, police went to the prison regarding the examination order, but Galvin-Taikato again refused to leave his cell.
Yesterday, Judge David Robinson said the defendant had ‘‘thumbed his nose’’ at the law.
That was consistent with Galvin-Taikato’s history of other serious offending and breaches of release conditions, he said.
The judge highlighted the reason for the orders was so people could not profit from their crimes,
and that non-compliance would have an adverse impact at parole hearings.
Judge Robinson sentenced him to four months’ imprisonment, cumulative on the term he was already serving.
