{"id":57675,"date":"2025-10-03T05:14:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T05:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/57675\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T05:14:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T05:14:10","slug":"whangarei-father-and-son-sentenced-in-relation-to-cannabis-operation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/57675\/","title":{"rendered":"Whang\u0101rei father and son sentenced in relation to cannabis operation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The court heard<\/a> that on October 30 last year, Tipene jnr was driving when he pointed an air rifle out the window of his vehicle at another motorist. There was no mention in court of what might have sparked this offending.<\/p>\n

When police tracked the vehicle to an address in Otangarei, Whang\u0101rei, they soon uncovered a commercial cannabis operation<\/a> being run by Tipene snr. Tipene jnr was responsible for selling the product.<\/p>\n

The indoor grow set-up<\/a> spanned two tents, yielding 10 mature cannabis plants and 24 smaller clones.<\/p>\n

Police also found 1108 cannabis-infused chocolates, weighing 20kg, inside a chest freezer at the property, with 216g of cannabis.<\/p>\n

When the pair were arrested, an officer reportedly said to Tipene jnr, \u201cI bet your dad\u2019s not too happy with you\u201d.<\/p>\n

At sentencing, defence lawyer Martin Hislop acknowledged that if Tipene jnr had not pointed the firearm at the motorist, the drug dealing would have never been discovered.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the cards fell down,\u201d Hislop said.<\/p>\n

Judge Gene Tomlinson took issue with the maximum penalty for presenting a weapon being six months\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m me, and I\u2019m driving along in a car and someone pulls an air pistol at me, I\u2019ll tell you right now, I\u2019d be wanting them to go to jail. It\u2019s serious offending,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

Tipene jnr faced charges of cannabis dealing<\/a>, presenting a firearm, and possessing ammunition, while his father was charged with multiple offences related to the cultivation and manufacture of cannabis.<\/p>\n

Tipene snr\u2019s lawyer, Jarred Scott, said his client had fallen back on old habits after losing his job.<\/p>\n

Scott pointed out that Tipene snr had left the Black Power in the 90s, but his cannabis addiction was a lifelong issue, and he was now engaged with a Salvation Army<\/a> rehabilitation programme.<\/p>\n

Hislop said Tipene jnr accepted full responsibility for his role in the cannabis dealing and did not want all the blame to be placed on his father, who had provided him with good foundations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you going to do if Dad\u2019s growing drugs?\u201d Judge Tomlinson questioned.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s normalised behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge acknowledged the work Tipene snr had done to turn his life around from the gangs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about \u2018do as I say, not as I do\u2019,\u201d Judge Tomlinson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s hard because you feel like a hypocrite, but I acknowledge that, because you\u2019re trying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Tomlinson said he understood Tipene snr took pride in being the family provider, and losing his job had driven him to make money illegally.<\/p>\n

But the judge said when someone offends in the way he did, \u201cthe court\u2019s got to smack you\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you sell it to your mate down the road and then he leaves it lying around and a teenage kid gets it and he takes it to school … that\u2019s why it\u2019s bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

After considering all of the submissions, the judge sentenced Tipene snr to 11 months of home detention and Tipene jnr to nine.<\/p>\n

Shannon Pitman is a Whang\u0101rei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ng\u0101puhi\/ Ng\u0101ti P\u016bkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The court heard that on October 30 last year, Tipene jnr was driving when he pointed an air…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[95,17285,2209,42,78,43,17286,38988,5161,22639,61,40,38,41,39,1869],"class_list":{"0":"post-57675","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-and","9":"tag-cannabis","10":"tag-father","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-in","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-operation","15":"tag-relation","16":"tag-sentenced","17":"tag-son","18":"tag-to","19":"tag-top-news","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-topnews","22":"tag-topstories","23":"tag-whangrei"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57675","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=57675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}