A man with a criminal history 21 pages long made 51 drug deals by text message in the space of three months while confined at home on a monitoring bracelet.

Tony Dean Adams, 36, was wearing the bracelet on electronically monitored (EM) bail for other offending, including the burglary of the 117-year-old Sign of the Kiwi cafe on Summit Rd, Christchurch.

When police raided his house, they found two shotguns, ammunition, two homemade tasers disguised as water pistols, 90.64g of methamphetamine, 18.68g of cannabis, and $6870 in cash.

They also found items associated with drug dealing and drug use: a quantity of plastic bags, three sets of electronic scales, multiple cellphones, numerous glass and rubber bongs, cannabis grinders, glass pipes, and an empty laundry detergent container with a false bottom used to hide things.

The house was protected by an elaborate camera system, with monitor screens in the lounge and bedroom, together with an audio alert that warned Adams when someone was coming up the drive.

Adams was sentenced to five years in prison in the Christchurch District Court in June for two sets of offending during 2023 and early this year. He then appealed that sentence to the High Court as being “manifestly excessive”.

Justice Jonathan Eaton reduced his prison term on appeal to four years and two months after reviewing the District Court’s assessments of Adams’ previous convictions and prospects for rehabilitation.

Justice Eaton’s High Court decision contains some of the numbers detailing Adams’ criminal history, along with the latest offences to which he pleaded guilty.

Historic building’s door broken

He said that in the early morning of April 15 last year, Adams was sitting in a car outside the Sign of the Kiwi, and waited while an associate broke down the front door to try to gain entry. The associate also went into a garage at the historic building and took various items.

He got back into the car and Adams drove away “at speed”, but was stopped by police a short time later.

The car was searched and police found a lock-picking set, a window punch tool, a small axe and a large number of car keys, along with 18.3g of cannabis leaf and 0.15g of meth.

In the vehicle’s rear seat, they found a paintball gun and an imitation pistol. When they took Adams into custody, they found a glass pipe with meth residue hidden in his underwear.

Adams refused to provide the Pin code to his phone.

He was released on EM bail and later pleaded guilty to burglary, possession of cannabis, possession of meth, possession of meth utensils and refusing to comply with his obligations for a police search.

While he was on bail, police obtained an order giving them access to Adams’ phone data.

“Data analysed on [Adams’] phone for the period August 9 to November 9, 2023, showed he was regularly dealing both methamphetamine and cannabis,” Justice Eaton said.

“During this period he made 51 identified drug deals through text message, 26 of which were linked to methamphetamine, three to the selling of cannabis and 22 of which could not be attributed to either drug.”

After his home was raided, Adams pleaded guilty to supplying methamphetamine, selling cannabis, possessing meth for supply, possessing cannabis for supply and unlawfully possessing firearms.

Justice Eaton said in addition to being on EM bail when he was dealing drugs, Adams was also serving a sentence of intensive supervision under a probation officer for driving while disqualified, burglary, receiving and theft.

Before that, he was sentenced to a 12-month prison sentence for his 34th offence of driving while disqualified.

“In total, Mr Adams has accumulated 10 convictions for possessing or procuring controlled drugs or possessing drug utensils over the last 10 years or so,” Justice Eaton said.

“Three of these convictions relate to cannabis, one to ecstasy and six to methamphetamine.

Criminal history outlined

“His adult criminal history is also littered with driving offences (approximately 35), dishonesty offences including burglary (approximately 34) and breaches of sentence and release conditions (approximately 15).”

Justice Eaton said he had no doubt the latest offending was driven by drug addiction.

Adams had acknowledged his offending escalated from committing burglary and car thefts and other dishonesty offending to feed his drug habit, to drug dealing from home to serve the same purpose.

He had no convictions for firearms or ammunition until this year.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.