Father of four, Daniel Tye Lees, who sold drugs to children jailed for three years

A Darwin father of four has learnt his fate after pleading guilty to selling almost 20g of cannabis to a number of children. What happened in court.

Daniel Tye Lees outside the Supreme Court after pleading guilty to cannabis supply. Picture: Jason Walls

A Darwin father of four who sold cannabis to “a number of youths” has walked from court on a three-year suspended sentence after almost 12 months time served.

Daniel Tye Lees, 47, pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to supplying 17g of the drug to a child as well as 2.45g of methamphetamine to adults.

In sentencing, Justice Judith Kelly said Lees was arrested four days after Christmas in 2022 after police began tapping his phone two months earlier.

A subsequent raid on his home turned up 5g of cannabis, a drug he had supplied to various people, 1g at a time, “sometimes in exchange for small amounts of money”.

Daniel Tye Lees tries to hide from the camera outside the Supreme Court, after pleading guilty to cannabis supply. Picture: Jason Walls

Justice Kelly said the one time semi-professional Aussie rules footy player had started using cannabis aged 16 before graduating to meth.

She said he also “probably” suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder following a drug related incident in 2020 in which he was “beaten with a baseball bat and stabbed”.

“These are serious offences, especially the supply to a child and the supply methamphetamine, which is a particularly insidious drug that causes a great deal of harm in our community,” she said.

“I need to send a message that the court and the community disapproves of this kind of offending and a sentence that will discourage you and other people from committing these kinds of offences.

“I also need to consider rehabilitation, you clearly have had in the past a drug problem and you aren’t completely over that.”