They were caught out by police attached to the Port Stephens Hunter Drug Unit who monitored and recorded them offering drugs to hotel guests.

Gareth Ian Wilkinson, 42, a group manager for Zenith hotels but who worked predominantly at the Shoal Bay Country Club, was off-duty on the night of April 29 when he was seen offering to sell 0.8 grams of cocaine to a patron at the waterfront hotel for $300.

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But when he went to contact his "upline supplier", who he said was somewhere in the hotel, he couldn't find him, according to a police statement of facts tendered in court. He gave out his phone number and told the guest to give him a call the next day.

Dean Howard Denehy, also 42, who worked at the hotel as a cellarman and bartender, was also off-duty when police caught him offering to supply cocaine to patrons. Police recorded him offering 1.25 grams of white powder in two separate, re-sealable plastic bags for $650.

Laboratory analysis found the powder to contain cocaine of about 12 per cent purity. Later the same night, Denehy sold 1.67 grams of white powder for $600, containing cocaine of 13.5 per cent purity.

Upon his arrest, Mr Denehy said he couldn't remember the night in question and had no knowledge of drug supply but later conceded, when shown a picture of himself at the hotel, that it was him.

Both men were arrested some weeks later on July 14, and remain on strict conditional bail. A third person, 32-year-old Carissa Sharpe, who was arrested at the same time, has pleaded not guilty to one count of drug supply.

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