A Queenstown man caught with a smorgasbord of drugs and boxes of cash in his home has narrowly avoided prison.
Petr Licenik, 39, a Czech national who is a permanent New Zealand resident, had asked Judge Russell Walker to keep his name a secret on the grounds its publication would jeopardise his ability to get work as a digging contractor.
However, Judge Walker said the information before him did not meet the "extreme hardship" test, and the community was entitled to know the identity of serious offenders.
Suspicions Licenik was dealing drugs prompted police to analyse data from his mobile phone — text messages showed him offering MDMA (ecstasy), LSD, psilocybin (magic mushrooms), ketamine and cannabis for sale to associates in March and April.
A search of his Hanley’s Farm home on May 7 uncovered MDMA, LSD and ketamine in a cupboard, with an estimated value of $9350, along with digital scales and hundreds of sealable plastic bags.
Nearby were cardboard boxes containing more than $45,000 in cash.
In the attic, officers found 546g of bagged cannabis head, worth about $7000, and 970g of dried magic mushrooms with an estimated value of $10,000.
Licenik told police he had been selling the drugs for about six months, but only to fund his own use.
He claimed he had earned the cash from digging jobs, but could not provide any details about customers or work locations.
He admitted a total of 10 drug charges — five of offering to supply and five of possession.
A charge against his partner was dropped by police as part of a plea deal.
Judge Walker said Licenik’s denial he had been selling the drugs for profit did not "stack up", and the evidence showed a "significant degree of commerciality".
From a starting point of four years’ prison, he applied discounts for the defendant’s guilty pleas, previous clean record, steps he had taken since his arrest, and "childhood trauma and a genetic disposition to drug use" identified in his drug and alcohol report.
The discounts brought the term of imprisonment down to two years, which, "by a very short margin", he substituted with a final sentence of 12 months’ home detention.
He ordered forfeiture of $30,000 of the cash, and warned Licenik he must expect to go to prison if he offended in a similar way again.
