Killer Beez boss yet to be sentenced

LAWRENCE SMITH/Fairfax NZ

'TOYING' WITH THE SYSTEM: Josh Marsters, center, at an earlier court appearance.

South Auckland Killer Beez gang boss Josh Marsters has yet to be sentenced on drug dealing charges more than three and a half years after being arrested.

Marsters may also be eligible for parole soon after he is sentenced in the new year. 

The gang boss was arrested with 42 other members and associates of the Killer Beez and Tribesmen gangs in May 2008 after a police crackdown on drug dealing in South Auckland.

Police seized several hundred thousand of dollars worth of methamphetamine and cannabis as well as stolen vehicles during raids on properties linked to the gangs.

More than two years after his arrest, in September 2010 and on the first day of his trial at the High Court in Auckland, Marsters finally admitted two charges of supplying methamphetamine, one of conspiring to sell it and money laundering.

The kickboxer had initially faced 17 charges but 13 were dropped in exchange for his guilty plea.

Until then he had denied any wrongdoing, even appearing on Campbell Live telling the nation he didn't touch drugs.

''I give you my word, no drugs. I am not known for taking drugs, my family know that, my friends know that and now New Zealand knows that," he said at the time.

Although admitting his guilt, Marsters wanted a disputed facts hearing to argue about the amount of drugs police claim he had dealt, before being sentenced.

Then before sentencing in September 2011, the 33-year-old indicated he wanted to vacate his guilty plea.

At the time, Crown prosecutor Bruce Northwood told the High Court that since Marsters' initial arrest he'd had three different lawyers and a court-appointed lawyer to support him as he defended himself, all of whom he had parted ways with.

''The Crown's view is he is toying with the system... The excuses offered are spurious.''

Northwood said Marsters' claims that he wanted to progress the case were ''at best doubtful and at worst dishonest''.

The court gave Marsters until September 28 to make an application to withdraw his plea or secure a lawyer but he turned up, from the cells, alone and carrying only a box of papers.

A sentencing date was then set down for November last year, but Marsters again got it adjourned.

He is due before the High Court in Auckland again in February, where he will have to convince a judge he should be allowed to vacate his plea or elect to be sentenced.

Police had hoped Marsters would be sentenced to up to 10 years in jail with a non-parole period of about five years.

By June 2012 Marsters would have served four years in remand so within a year would be eligible for parole.

But judges often give more weight to time spent in remand, because it is unsettling for offenders, and police fear this could mean Marsters maybe eligible for parole almost immediately upon sentencing.

- © Fairfax NZ News