Strip-for-drugs dealer jailed for four years six months
The children of a strip-for-drugs cannabis dealer have left school after being taunted and bullied, the High Court at Christchurch was told as the dealer was jailed for four-and-a-half years.
The information drew a comment at the sentencing from Justice John Fogarty who said the attitude of the community to his children “seems to be quite unfair”.
“It is distressing that his children have been bullied and taunted, and in that sense victimised by other children,” he said.
He told Greer directly: “It is regrettable that some persons in the community have sought to take out their anger at this offending, against your children. Unfortunately, I can do nothing about that.”
Defence counsel Kirsten Gray said the effect of Kevin Beria Greer’s school drugs dealing – sometimes exchanging drugs or cigarettes for schoolgirls exposing themselves for photographs – had been devastating for his family.
Greer’s wife said in a letter to the court that the offending had “changed us all”. Miss Gray said the family had been subjected to media attention and Greer’s two young children had not been able to deal with bullying at school. They had now been taken out of school.
Justice Fogarty said that the effects of cannabis on young people made it serious offending. It could have serious consequences on their lives if they became hooked, and there was evidence that it doubled the risk to young people if they were vulnerable to mental health issues.
Greer, 46, had admitted the charges of possessing morphine, Ritalin, and cannabis for supply, supplying cannabis to 20 young people, and sexual exploitation of young people.
He was found in a van parked outside Burnside High School, across the road from the school on Greers Road. The van had curtains so that the interior could not be seen from outside.
When the police raided it outside the school on May 24, they found Greer inside with two 16-year-old schoolgirls in school uniform, drugs, and a digital camera containing 17 photographs of girls exposing their breasts and genitals. The photographs involved six girls, and two who were identified said they had exposed themselves for cannabis and cigarettes.
Crown prosecutor Marcus Elliott said: “This is a type of offending that really touches a nerve in the community.”
He said the drug dealing had taken place outside a school, during school hours, had involved students, and there had been a sexual dimension to it. “Denunciation and deterrence would be uppermost in the court’s mind.”
Miss Gray said some of the 155.3g of cannabis found in Greer’s position had been for personal use for health reasons. Greer had felt community pressure over the offending. It was viewed as abhorrent but it was not a sophisticated commercial operation.
The defence accepted dealing to schoolchildren was a significant aggravating factor.
Justice Fogarty said: “It is reasonably well established now that the supply of cannabis to teenagers, whose brains are still in a state of formation, can have very serious consequences for their life development.
“It promotes demotivation at a time when young people need as much motivation as they can to study hard, to complete apprenticeships, or acquire a profession at university. It is a matter of considerable concern to the community.”
The van Greer was using has been confiscated, but confiscation of the cash found will be considered at another hearing.
Greer had pleaded guilty in the Christchurch District Court but the case had been sent to the High Court for sentence because of its seriousness.
Justice Fogarty imposed a series of cumulative and concurrent jail terms totalling four years six months. He had granted a reduction because of the guilty pleas.
Category: News
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