Cops raid wrong hotel room and find drugs haul

It cost him more than $18,000.

Peter Geoffrey Webb, 70, from Devonport in Tasmania, had a room at a hotel in March last year.

Police went to the hotel in relation to another person.

However, a hotel employee gave them wrong information and they entered Webb's room instead, Justice Tamara Jago said before sentencing him in the Tasmania Supreme Court in Burnie on March 3.

Webb was not in the room at the time.

Police found a stash of cannabis and cash in the room, and subsequently charged Webb.

He pleaded guilty to dealing with property suspected to be the proceeds of crime.

Justice Jago sentenced him to four months' jail, wholly suspended on condition he commit no offence punishable by jail for two years ago.

She ordered that $18,440 police seized be forfeited.

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Webb told police the money was a combination of his savings and pokies winnings, Justice Jago said.

He claimed to police the drugs were for personal use.

Justice Jago said it was a serious offence.

She said the amount of money was relatively substantial and Webb committed the offences as a mature man who had had previous dealings with the justice system.

She said he was on the age pension and noted he had health difficulties.

Factors she took into account in sentencing included his guilty plea and that his record was "not particularly grave".

The judge said Webb was given a partially suspended sentence for trafficking in a controlled substance in 2014.

His record also included driving offences.

She said Webb was single and divorced.