A Sydney man who used a five-year-old relative as part of a drug-dealing operation has been sentenced to a minimum of two years and three months in prison.
The 36-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared in Penrith District Court today after pleading guilty to one count of supplying drugs on an ongoing basis.
The man was arrested in December 2014 after an undercover police operation revealed he was supplying drugs from a Woolloomooloo property.
The police sting took place over five days, where an undercover officer bought balloons of heroin for between $100 and $200.
A total of 0.41 grams was sold to the officer.
The court heard the man's relative, a boy aged about five, collected money from the officer on three occasions.
However, Acting Judge Norman Delaney said the child had no direct contact with the drugs.
"There is no suggestion the young boy has anything whatsoever to do with touching, handling ... the drugs when this transaction happened," he said.
Drug dealer 'stressed, taking care of mum'
The court heard after the man was arrested on December 30, he told police during an interview he had been under so much pressure he did not remember much of the events that had occurred.
"Just taking care of my mum, really, and the stress has been getting to me a little bit," the man was recorded saying during a police interview.
When handing down the sentence, Acting Judge Delaney described the man as a "low-level street dealer", who was providing drugs to others to support his own habit.
He said while he had taken the man's guilty plea into account, a prior criminal history of drug possession did not allow for any additional leniency.
He described the man's use of a child to collect money as "reprehensible" but said it was not a matter of aggravation in the case.
The man was sentenced to almost four years in jail, with a minimum of two years and three months.
Counting the time already served, the man will be eligible for release in March 2017.
