The judge told Stacey Bom that drug offending is wreaking havoc on communities and she was naive if she didn’t think her own children were aware of what was going on.
‘Can u sort me 2 8 balls today’
The summary of facts showed Stacey Bom bought and sold the drugs to multiple people between March and August 2024.
It started when she bought 7g of methamphetamine and then distributed more than 20g of it in the following months.
By August, she was reaching out to her mother for the drugs.
“Can u sort me 2 8 balls today, I need to know coz it’s not for me,” she messaged Tina.
Her mother responded, saying she could, and asked her daughter to pick her up.
From there, Tina Bom was captured messaging her daughter and others multiple times over the next five months.
She supplied them with various quantities ranging from .25g to 3.5g of methamphetamine.
By early January 2025, she was also offering people LSD on Facebook.
When police raided her house in mid-January 2025, they found six cannabis plants in a walled-off area of the garage, inside a grow tent with a hanging light, and $2500 cash in a metal case next to her bed.
‘An insidious industry’
While Judge Crosbie had earlier given a sentence indication of home detention to the women, he said he wanted to be clear it was one step down from imprisonment.
“You won’t be going to prison; it is only on the margins.
“Unlike your daughter, you have a little bit of history as far as drug offending goes, the probation report says you normalised the offending.
“I think your attitude sucks.”
Tina Bom argued the $2500 found in the metal case next to her bed was inheritance money, but Judge Crosbie wasn’t willing to accept the submission.
“It’s a bit cheeky too.”
Judge Crosbie temporarily adjourned her sentencing and moved on to her daughter.
He told Stacey Bom she had been struggling in emergency accommodation with two children, and in an abusive relationship with their father.
He said she had no offending history and had been using methamphetamine daily.
There was an entrenched history of substance abuse and a number of developmental issues, the judge said.
“The offending occurred over an extended period of time.
“You, being a mother, appearing with your mother; this offending is continuing to wreak havoc on our communities.
“If you think children aren’t aware, then you might be really naive.
“Once drugs leave your hands, you have no control over whose hands they end up in; the person you supply them to might supply them to kids.”
Judge Crosbie sentenced her to 12 months’ home detention.
Tina Bom then returned to the courtroom and accepted the order for forfeiture of the money to the Crown.
Judge Crosbie sentenced her to nine months’ home detention.
Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the last 16 years. Most recently he was editor of the Hauraki-Coromandel Post, based in Whangamatā. He was previously deputy editor of the Cook Islands News.