A 37-year-old childcare worker from Cape Town has been convicted of importing tik into New Zealand.
|||Cape Town - A childcare worker from Cape Town has been convicted of importing tik into New Zealand. Haley Carol Jacobs, 37, could be identified for the first time on Friday after pleading guilty to a charge of importing methamphetamine.
Jacobs is from Cape Town, but lives in Christchurch, the New Zealand Herald reported on Friday.
She is married with a teenage son, and works at an early childhood learning centre for pre-school children in Christchurch.
New Zealand media reported that she had resigned shortly after her arrest from her job which she had held for about a month.
A spokeswoman at the centre said they were shocked by the “nightmare” revelations and had moved to reassure parents that their children were never in any harm.
Jacobs was caught when customs intercepted a package from South Africa at the International Mail Centre in Auckland on July 24, which contained 8g of the drug.
The drugs were wrapped in four small plastic bags inside a CD case and had been sent from a Cape Town address, news website stuff.co.nz reported.
After customs officers searched her Richmond home in Christchurch a week later, they found drug paraphernalia including three glass pipes and eight bags containing tik residue.
It was found that she had imported small amounts of the drug on several occasions from January last year until her actions were uncovered.
She told customs that she had arranged through a friend known only as “King” to have the drugs sent to her in Taranaki and Christchurch, with the amounts of tik varying between 2g and 4g.
Stuff.co.nz reported that Jacobs pleaded guilty to a charge which said she imported the drug several times from South Africa from January 1 to July 24 last year.
She is out on bail and will be sentenced on November 20.
Cape Argus