New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Gps monitoring

Legal area

Court

9 Dec 2021

HOWE v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2021] NZCA 619

Citation

[2021] NZCA 619
Court

Court of Appeal

Given the appellant's entrenched pattern of offending, repeated breaches of bail and sentence conditions, absence of an available residential rehabilitation address pre-release, and the insufficiency of GPS/home detention to reliably prevent high-risk driving, imprisonment of 13 months was the least restrictive sentence appropriate to protect the community; the District and High Court judges did not err in law or principle and the appeal is dismissed.
12 Nov 2021

HOWE v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2021] NZCA 604

Citation

[2021] NZCA 604
Court

Court of Appeal

Leave to appeal was granted because the appellant raised arguable errors — an incorrect assumption about the availability of a residential rehabilitation facility for home detention and a potential failure to assess whether home detention with GPS monitoring could adequately protect public safety — that could amount to a miscarriage of justice warranting full appellate consideration.
29 Nov 2019

GREEN v R [2019] NZCA 602

Citation

[2019] NZCA 602
Court

Court of Appeal

Leave to bring a second appeal was declined because the High Court and District Court had applied Patterson; the challenged GPS, internet access and employment conditions were found to be reasonably necessary, proportionate and rationally connected to the risks posed by the applicant, and the application did not raise an issue of general or public importance nor a miscarriage of justice.
5 Sept 2019

GREEN v R [2019] NZHC 2220

Citation

[2019] NZHC 2220
Court

High Court

The Court held the prohibition on entering public premises where internet‑capable devices are accessible was a proportionate special condition to reduce the high risk of reoffending; GPS/electronic monitoring was upheld only insofar as it is necessary to monitor compliance with place prohibitions (and cannot be used to monitor a mere residential condition absent an express residential restriction); the employment‑approval condition was upheld but the probation service should permit applications for employment that demonstrably do not provide access to internet‑capable devices without forcing…
12 Apr 2019

MANUEL v POLICE [2019] NZHC 816

Citation

[2019] NZHC 816
Court

High Court

The non-association and GPS monitoring conditions lacked the required rational nexus to the precise criminality underlying the index offending and were not justified by s93(3); consequently those two conditions were set aside, while the term of three months' imprisonment and the remaining special conditions were upheld as not manifestly excessive or unjustified.
16 Jan 2018

ARMSTRONG (on Behalf of the Department of Corrections) v NICHOLAS [2018] NZHC 5

Citation

[2018] NZHC 5
Court

High Court

The court has jurisdiction under s94 to impose additional release conditions post-sentencing. Given the respondent's high assessed risk of re-offending, history of breaches, and specific fascination with 666 Great South Road, imposing special conditions including residence at an approved rehabilitative facility and an exclusion zone was necessary and proportionate. GPS monitoring was not necessary to enforce a curfew but was justified and proportionate if narrowly limited to monitoring compliance with the imposed exclusion zone (condition 12). Conditions must expire on the sentence expiry dat…

New Zealand Case Law

HOWE v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2021] NZCA 619

HOWE v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2021] NZCA 604

GREEN v R [2019] NZCA 602

GREEN v R [2019] NZHC 2220

MANUEL v POLICE [2019] NZHC 816

ARMSTRONG (on Behalf of the Department of Corrections) v NICHOLAS [2018] NZHC 5