Wellington, March 12 NZPA - A man jailed for life for manufacturing methamphetamine has had his application for leave to appeal dismissed by the Supreme Court.

Albert John Rhodes was one of five men jailed last year for their roles in a large-scale methamphetamine manufacture and supply ring.

Following a nine-week trial in the High Court at Auckland the men were sentenced to jail terms ranging from six-and-a-half years to life.

Their appeals were dismissed by the Court of Appeal.

Rhodes was the first person in New Zealand to be jailed for life for manufacturing methamphetamine.

It emerged at his sentencing that he had a long list of convictions in New Zealand dating back to the 1970s and owed the Australian government $20 million in a pecuniary penalty order.

The Supreme Court, in its decision issued today, said that Rhodes wished to argue that there was an inconsistency with another Court of Appeal case, because the people in the other case, who also received life imprisonment, had dealt in larger amounts of drugs. The Supreme Court had also refused leave to appeal in the case cited.

"But, as counsel for the Crown responds, that is a fallacious argument if, as the Court of Appeal concluded and we agree, the applicant's activities were serious enough to merit life imprisonment," the judgment said.

"The fact that someone else's offending was worse is beside the point."