An undercover police sting revealed two Dunedin dads were peddling cannabis from a vehicle business one owned. Ricky James Muir, 32, and David Dean Hill, 38, appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday after each admitting their roles in the joint venture. The court heard that on June 5 last year, an undercover police officer was sent to Muir’s Willis St business Otago Vehicle Buyers. The officer asked for a pound of “weed” and Muir said he needed half an hour to pick it up, a police summary said. When the undercover officer returned, Muir directed the officer to Hill who pulled a white bag out of a filing cabinet at the back of the workshop. Inside was two half-pound bags of cannabis, which Hill assured the officer had been weighed. The officer gave Hill $3500 cash and the deal was done. About three weeks later, Muir contacted the officer to arrange another drug deal. They met in a carpark and the defendant handed the officer an ounce of cannabis in a bag in exchange for six bottles of alcohol. In a bid to upsell the infiltrator, Muir offered an ounce of “MD” for $2500 confirming he had a good supply of “rocks”. On February 12 police executed a search warrant at Muir’s workshop during which Muir and Hill refused to provide the passwords to their phones. In an unrelated incident at 2.40am on October 26 last year, Hill got into an altercation with a man at the intersection of Princes St and Jetty St. The victim threatened the defendant before grabbing a beer bottle from his car. Hill wrestled the bottle from the victim before hitting him over the head with it five times. The victim suffered a wound to his temple. Hill told police he was acting in self defence. Yesterday, Judge Hermann Retzlaff acknowledged Muir had no relevant previous convictions, was engaging in counselling for his gambling addiction and was remorseful. He continued running his business and caring for his children. “You continue to make efforts to move on from this offending and be a constructive member of the community,” the judge noted. He sentenced Muir to four months’ community detention. In sentencing Hill, Judge Retzlaff noted the drug dealing was “not a sophisticated operation” and he was “mindful of the self-defence context” of the assault. The court heard Hill was unemployed, and had custody of his children. The judge sentenced him to 300 hours’ community work and seven months’ supervision. felicity.dear@odt.co.nz
