A small-time Sydney drug dealer who tasked a kindergarten-aged relative with accepting cash payments for heroin has been sentenced to a minimum of just over two years behind bars.
Penrith District Court on Tuesday heard how the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was living with his mother and uncle in a public housing unit in inner-city Woolloomooloo when he was nabbed in a police sting.
The 36-year-old pleaded guilty last year to a charge of supplying prohibited drugs on an ongoing basis and was sentenced on Tuesday to three years and nine months, with a non-parole period of 27 months.
Acting Judge Norman Delaney said undercover police lined up five heroin deals with the offender over five days in December 2014.
In three of the five transactions, the man sent out a five-year-old relative to accept cash for the drugs.
The boy turned over the cash to the offender, who would then complete the deal by handing over small balloons containing heroin at a nearby pub.
"There is no suggestion that the young boy had anything whatsoever to do with actually touching, handling or possessing any drug," Acting Judge Delaney said.
"It is reprehensible that the offender asked a young person living with him to go down and collect the money from the police officer but fortunately he was not exposed to any other aspect of the deal."
The judge said the offender had form in dealing drugs but stressed that he was a street-level pusher who sold heroin to feed his own addiction, and that he "can be rehabilitated if he desires to be rehabilitated".
With time served, the man will be eligible for release as early as March next year.
