{"id":29326,"date":"2025-09-18T09:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T09:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/29326\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T09:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T09:03:09","slug":"michael-clark-jailed-for-meth-dealing-including-while-at-aucklands-grace-foundation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/29326\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Clark jailed for meth dealing, including while at Auckland\u2019s Grace Foundation"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to the summary of facts, the meth had an estimated street value of around half a million dollars<\/a>, with the potential to cause $730,000 in social harm.<\/p>\n

Clark, who has previously served \u201ca reasonably extensive prison sentence\u201d for meth dealing, claimed the drugs were to be sold to someone else and he was simply holding them for a short period, adding that he knew nothing about the sale. <\/p>\n

He also said there had been no gang involvement<\/a> and he was acting alone. <\/p>\n

Last year, Clark received a sentencing indication on charges of possession of methamphetamine for supply and two charges of supplying methamphetamine, stemming from the 2023 bust. <\/p>\n

Meth found in his room at rehab <\/p>\n

At the time of the indication and while on bail, he was in rehab at the Grace Foundation in Auckland.<\/p>\n

But during his stay at the facility, Clark texted a Wellington woman asking if she was still working, the court heard today.<\/p>\n

\"MichaelMichael Clark was jailed for 10 years in the Wellington District Court. Photo \/ File<\/p>\n

He suggested she book cheap flights to Auckland, saying he could get her work if she flew up. <\/p>\n

In July, the woman flew to Auckland and brought 150g of meth from Clark\u2019s associates, before returning to the capital. The drugs were intercepted before she left Auckland. <\/p>\n

Four months later, during a search of Clark\u2019s room at the treatment centre, 207g of the drug was found in a bag and a pill container, along with scales, a cellphone and $1035 cash. <\/p>\n

Again, Clark maintained he was acting as an intermediary, claiming he\u2019d only passed on details of someone he knew who had methamphetamine and the drugs in his room were for someone else. <\/p>\n

But at the sentencing, Judge Noel Sainsbury wasn\u2019t convinced, pointing out it was Clark who\u2019d contacted the woman, giving her instructions. <\/p>\n

\u201cSimilarly, you are in a rehab facility and you have methamphetamine in quantities and packages in a way that speaks to dealing,\u201d he said, describing the offending as significant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI accept you have an addiction to methamphetamine but this goes beyond that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Good prospects of rehabilitation\u2019<\/p>\n

Clark\u2019s offending at the facility resulted in two additional charges of supplying methamphetamine and possession of methamphetamine for supply. <\/p>\n

Despite the additional charges, Clark\u2019s lawyer, Elizabeth Hall, submitted there should be no uplift to the original sentencing indication, which had a starting point of nine years\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n

She told the court her client has long-standing drug addiction issues and \u201cgood prospects of rehabilitation\u201d. <\/p>\n

Hall submitted Clark had applied himself to the rehab programme and pointed out he\u2019d received no financial gain from the meth found in his room. <\/p>\n

She said he was deeply committed to his family, children and partner, who supported him, and urged the judge to impose a sentence that ultimately allowed him to leave prison so he could return to his family and employment and live a more pro-social life. <\/p>\n

But prosecutor Lee van der Lem said, given the court accepted Clark\u2019s role in the rehab offending was significant, a cumulative sentence should be imposed.<\/p>\n

Van der Lem said a pre-sentence report made it clear Clark was unlikely to make significant progress until he severed ties with his gang associates. <\/p>\n

In terms of remorse, he also said Clark \u201chad a surface-level appreciation of the harm he\u2019d caused\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018Meth got you by the throat\u2019<\/p>\n

In sentencing him, Judge Sainsbury accepted Clark\u2019s was a standalone operation and not a gang one but rejected the assertion Clark was simply holding the drugs, saying that with his history such a suggestion was untenable. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is what it looks like,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The judge acknowledged Clark, who\u2019d come from a life of privilege and opportunity, was addicted to methamphetamine. <\/p>\n

At some point \u201cmeth got you by the throat\u201d, he told Clark, although the judge was at a loss to explain why that was. <\/p>\n

While he accepted Clark\u2019s addiction was an issue in the offending, it hadn\u2019t affected his ability to make rational choices. <\/p>\n

He told Clark he was lucky to have a supportive family but until he moved on from the gang and his associates, little would change.<\/p>\n

The judge adopted a sentence of seven years on the original charges and added a three-year uplift for the new offending.<\/p>\n

He made no apologies when jailing Clark for 10 years, telling him that, given this was his third offence for methamphetamine, \u201cthe sentences are harsh\u201d.<\/p>\n

The judge declined to impose a minimum period of imprisonment but ordered the destruction of the drugs, scales, cellphone and forfeiture of the cash. <\/p>\n

Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to the summary of facts, the meth had an estimated street value of around half a million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1975,3952,28701,19197,9525,18788,12471,11163,2082,20468,5912,8454,14641,1868,13240,5494,111,139,69,28703,28700,5763,28702,213,6123],"class_list":["post-29326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-at","tag-aucklands","tag-awaiting","tag-bail","tag-caught","tag-clark","tag-dealing","tag-facility","tag-for","tag-foundation","tag-grace","tag-including","tag-jailed","tag-meth","tag-methamphetamine","tag-michael","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-offending","tag-rehab","tag-sentence","tag-similar","tag-sports","tag-while"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}