Man with 12kg of magic mushrooms thought he was providing a ‘community service’

When police searched Ben Mayo’s house, they found hundreds of pre-packed and vacuum-sealed bags of magic mushrooms, weighing almost 12kg, in his wardrobe, bags and shed.

They also found cash under a couch, and a laboratory containing “mushroom spores”, chemicals, equipment, and growing mediums used in the cultivation and manufacture of magic mushrooms (psilocybin).

In the Pāpāmoa man’s wardrobe were eight large plastic containers of soil growing magic mushrooms. He had also been importing “red wood bark”, declared to customs as “aromatic herbs”, to extract and manufacture dimethyltryptamine (DMT).

Mayo pleaded guilty to five drug-related charges and was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court this week.

The charges involving the importation, manufacture and possession for supply of the Class A drugs attracted a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

However, at sentencing, Judge Paul Geoghegan acknowledged that reference to a maximum penalty was a “blunt instrument”, and that each case had to be assessed on its own.

Mayo’s lawyer, William Mohammed, appearing on behalf of Ron Mansfield, KC, discussed at length the distinction between the Class A drugs involved in Mayo’s offending and others the court usually dealt with, namely methamphetamine and cocaine.

He said the substances, magic mushrooms and DMT, both psychedelic drugs, were at “the lowest end of the harm”.

“And so it’s certainly our submission, sir, that there is no evidence of actual harm, toxicity, or addiction arising from these substances,” Mohammed said.

Similarly, there was no evidence of harm caused in production, unlike with substances such as cocaine, where offshore gangs had a monopoly on production due to where the plant could be grown, and the supply chain was “rife with abuse, violence, killing, and the like”.

This case, Mohammed said, involved a man in his cupboard, growing mushrooms in trays of dirt.

But Crown prosecutor Laura Clay said the Crown had taken that into account when setting a starting point, and that it was “still a class A drug”, with any reclassification a matter for Parliament.

Ben Mayo was sentenced in Tauranga District Court.

Mayo had made comments to a pre-sentence report writer that seemed to suggest he thought he was providing a “community service” by supplying the class A drugs.

While the defence highlighted that Mayo was a one-man band who lived a relatively modest lifestyle and wasn’t a “big international gang boss”, the Crown said it was still clearly a commercial operation.

Clay said when police arrived at Mayo’s address, the “lab was running, and it was relatively sophisticated”, and $60,000 in cash was found in snaplock bags under the couch.

The judge agreed that the quantity of cash “wasn’t to be sniffed at”.

The equipment found by police was used to manufacture both DMT and magic mushrooms, and included caustic material, pH meters, sterilisation equipment, a magnetic spinner, petri dishes and grow bags.

There were magic mushrooms in “various states” and large syringes of “various mushroom spores” for different strains.

Neurodiverse with ‘an unhealthy interest’

But the defence emphasised that Mayo was neurodiverse, had found the drugs helpful, and that his production had increased as a result.

“He’s a complex man and the fact that the court has never really encountered someone like Mr Mayo speaks to how unusual these circumstances are,” Mohammed said.

He described Mayo as “an unusual character” who had autistic traits and had made a big mistake.

Judge Geoghegan acknowledged that submission, saying the defence had asked him to assess the offending in light of the fact Mayo was “someone with ADHD and autistic traits [who] has developed an unhealthy interest in the production of these drugs, and a degree of obsession about that”.

The judge said the pre-sentence report showed Mayo, who has no previous convictions, had presented his offending as “essentially providing a convenient service”, but the Crown had pointed out that while the drugs could be prescribed in “certain circumstances”, this was testament to the harm they could cause in an “unregulated environment”.

The Crown sought an overall starting point of seven years and nine months in prison before any personal circumstances were taken into account.

Mayo’s counsel sought a starting point of four years, with discounts totalling 60%, plus an additional reduction for time spent on restrictive bail and in custody.

Judge Geoghegan found an appropriate overall starting point was six years’ imprisonment.

He applied a 15% discount for Mayo’s guilty plea, which came more than a year after charges were laid.

The judge accepted some allowance could be made for a connection between the matters referred to in a psychological report and the offending, but did not think there was as clear a link as in many other cases.

He allowed a 10% discount, rather than the 15% sought by Mayo’s lawyers, as well as a further 10% for his prospects of rehabilitation.

Mayo received a further 5% for remorse and previous good character, 5% for the impact of imprisonment on his daughter, and a seven-month reduction for time spent on a 24-hour curfew and in custody.

That resulted in a final sentence of two years and 10 months’ imprisonment.

Mayo wept in the dock as the sentence was handed down, and Mohammed immediately indicated he had instructions to appeal.

Mayo was granted bail pending the appeal.

Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.