Heroin dealer Robert Calamatta jailed for 2½ years
A man who was caught dealing heroin 49 times in a one month period to fund his own addiction has been jailed for two and a half years.
Central Coast
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Robert Calamatta will spend a minimum of one year and three months behind bars and a further year and three months on parole after being sentenced in Gosford District Court on Friday.
The 42-year-old from Wamberal pleaded guilty to one count of supplying a prohibited drug, namely heroin, on an ongoing basis.
A further two charges of possessing a prohibited drug and dealing with the proceeds of crime were put on a Form 1 certificate and taken into account in determining his sentence.
The court heard he supplied small amounts between 0.1g and 1g a total of 49 times in a 30 day period between November and December 2018 with a total weight of 44.44g.
He also offered to supply another offender, Greg Boyd, 28g of heroin but that was stopped by police.
The court heard Tuggerah Lakes police established Strike Force Lamprey in October 2018 to investigate the supply of drugs on the Central Coast.
An agreed set of facts tendered to court states Calamatta would travel to Sydney about once a month to purchase heroin from an unknown supplier.
He would then return to the Central Coast and supply his own customer base and to Boyd, who had his own customers.
The facts state Calamatta and Boyd would only talk on the phone to discuss drug transactions.
Police intercepted hundreds of telephone calls before launching six simultaneous raids on properties across five suburbs on January 10 last year.
The court heard police seized small resealable bags, 1.43g of heroin and more than $5000 cash hidden around Calamatta’s Wamberal home.
Judge Tanya Bright said she was satisfied he was a “street level” supplier and was doing it to fund his own drug addiction.
She said Calamatta started using cannabis at the age of 14 before being expelled from high school in year 10.
By the age of 23 Judge Bright said he began using heroin.
She said he met his current partner at a chemist where she worked but had lost her job because of his offending.
Judge Bright said Calamatta’s criminal history began in 1999 with a common assault and larceny conviction, followed by another larceny in 2001, five counts of goods in custody and breaking and entering in 2003 and possessing a prohibited drug in 2007.
She said she accepted his time in custody would be more onerous given the current COVID-19 restrictions on prisoner visits and that if he stayed off drugs he would have strong prospects of rehabilitation.
However she said the supply of drugs had a “very significant detrimental effect to the community” and would require a total sentence longer than two years jail, meaning he was ineligible to serve the sentence by way of an intensive corrections order.
Judge Bright sentenced Calamatta to a total sentence of two and a half years with a non-parole period of one year and three months to expire on September 23, 2021.
His co-accused, Boyd, will be sentenced next week after pleading guilty to his role in supplying drugs.