Tamworth ice castle: Matthew Robert Lee has appeal on harsh sentence for drug dealing rejected

Matthew Robert Lee was on parole for 140 drug deals when he was caught hawking ice, that a court heard had received a number of "customer complaints" for poor quality, in Tamworth's prolific 'ice castle' bust.

Judge Deborah Payne sentenced the then 35-year-old in July, 2020, for dealing more than 50g of ice sourced from Canberra.

The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal Justice John Basten found the court could only look at the same facts and had not come to a different conclusion.

"A claim of manifest excess implies either that in some way the sentencing exercise has miscarried or that the available range of sentencing has been exceeded," he said.

"Neither was demonstrated in this case."

In its judgement, the court found no error had been made by the sentencing judge where the maximum penalty for the offence is 15 years' imprisonment.

Defence lawyers argued the sentence was heavy given there was no evidence that Lee's drug business was thriving or that he had a wider network.

Judge Payne in her sentencing described Lee as a "substantial drug user himself" who was a "mid-level drug dealer" in the operation.

Lee was charged with the supply of ice on three separate occasions from February to March in 2019.

He was identified as one of several "up-line" suppliers who worked with ice castle lynchpin, Steven Hanshaw.

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In February of 2019, Lee drove from Dubbo to Canberra to source $6000 worth of methylamphetamine, which was sold to a Strike Force Radius undercover police officer for double the price.

A month later he scooped 1.75g of ice from a bag with a plastic spoon and gave it to Hanshaw for $200 and provided the same amount again on March 20, 2019.

Lee was arrested in June, 2019. His sentence will expire in September, 2024.

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