A West Launceston man who was busted trying to sell drugs to fund a handyman business six months before his parole finished has been sentenced in the Launceston Supreme Court.
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David Jonathan Holmyard, 32, on November 20 pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and dealing in the proceeds of crime, and on Monday he was imprisoned for two years by acting Justice David Porter - almost six years to the day he was jailed for manslaughter.
The court had earlier heard Holmyard had intended to sell meth in order to buy a car and associated tools to start a gardening and home maintenance business.
When police broke down his West Launceston door in a raid in May they found 48.1 grams of methylamphetamine worth about $28,000, a .22-calibre pistol and a further $19,925 - that proved to have been the proceeds of crime.
Sixteen months before the raid, Holmyard has been paroled after being sentenced in 2016 to a six-year prison term, with four years non-parole, for manslaughter after he hit a car in Evandale while on a cocktail of ice, alcohol and cannabis, killing a 54-year-old woman as she turned into her driveway.
The crash occurred after Holmyard was seen speeding by police, and moments after Holmyard's speedometer was frozen at 170km/h due to impact.
In the immediate wake of the 2016 sentencing, the husband of the woman killed in the crash expressed his disappointment that Holmyard would be eligible for parole after four years.
Holmyard's six-year sentence was the longest for vehicular manslaughter since George Town man Troy Ashley Shipton was sentenced to seven years behind bars, with a non-parole period of five years, in 2002.
Holmyard's parole documents showed he applied to be released from prison early in part because he "wishes to pursue a lifestyle free of the criminal justice system, specifically as a 'family man'".
Holmyard's defence counsel, in submitting a guilty plea, said selling the drugs was "part of the plan" to fund the would-be handyman business.
The two year sentence would be cumulative to the sentence remaining from the six years he was given for the manslaughter matters. Acting Justice Porter imposed a non-parole period of 12 months on the new offences.
If Holmyard is released on parole after the 12-month period, he will have spent just 17 months out of prison over a period of eight-and-a-half years.
In total, he would have spent 20 per cent of his life behind bars on two matters.
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