New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Home detention substitution

Legal area

Court

26 Jul 2023

R v HOWARD [2023] NZHC 1965

Citation

[2023] NZHC 1965
Court

High Court

The Court set a three-year starting point, applied a 20% guilty-plea discount and further mitigations (5% remorse, 10% rehabilitation, 10% background disadvantage) reducing the effective imprisonment end sentence to 20 months; in light of the defendant's age, genuine remorse, rehabilitation steps, strong family support and the exceptional circumstances, the Court substituted imprisonment with the most serious non-custodial punishment—eight months home detention—reduced by two months because 100 hours community work was imposed; driving disqualification set at four years to protect public safe…
22 Jul 2022

NICOL v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2022] NZHC 1771

Citation

[2022] NZHC 1771
Court

High Court

Appellant's offending fell in Zhang band 2 but at the lower end; independent evidence established addiction and a lesser individual street‑level role so the appropriate starting point was reduced to two years six months, the four‑month uplift for prior convictions was not excessive, full guilty plea credit should have been applied (25%), a modest addiction discount (5%) and an EM bail credit equivalent to five months were appropriate, resulting in a sentence that could be commuted to home detention; accordingly the High Court substituted seven months' home detention (with three months credite…
3 Sept 2021

KAHU v R [2021] NZCA 431

Citation

[2021] NZCA 431
Court

Court of Appeal

Given the medical evidence that the child's catastrophic brain injuries were caused by significant force involving excessive flexion-extension of the head consistent with a single but violent shake amounting to gross negligence, and having regard to s9A aggravating factors and sentencing purposes, the starting point of 18 months' imprisonment and the end sentence imposed were within the appropriate range and not manifestly excessive.
7 Dec 2020

C v POLICE [2020] NZHC 3200

Citation

[2020] NZHC 3200
Court

High Court

Given the appellant's advanced age, serious health issues, the suitability of his home and supervision, and authoritative precedent that home detention can sufficiently signal denunciation and deterrence, the High Court allowed the appeal, substituted nine months' home detention for the 19 months' imprisonment, imposed specified supervision and treatment conditions, and ordered the appellant remain on the Child Sex Offender Register under s 9 of the 2016 Act.
16 Oct 2020

GALICIA ROMERO v R [2020] NZHC 2740

Citation

[2020] NZHC 2740
Court

High Court

The Court held that (1) the District Court erred in its factual assessment of Galicia Romero's role because he was not present at the handover, warranting reduction of his starting point from 8.5 to 6.5 years; (2) the Crown's conceded 20% duress discount was accepted but the disputed facts were not proven by the appellants; (3) the Moses two-step discount methodology was appropriate to apply on appeal to avoid manifest disparity between co-offenders, leading to reduction of Narváez Chamorro's sentence from 4 years 10 months to 3 years 6 months imprisonment and substitution of Galicia Romero's…
24 Apr 2020

TUKI v POLICE [2020] NZHC 806

Citation

[2020] NZHC 806
Court

High Court

The appeal is allowed: the Court applied a two-month credit for time on EM bail and increased the guilty plea discount to 20%, resulting in reduction of the end sentence from 16 to 13 months' imprisonment; the eight-month sentence for the receiving/using the debit card charge was quashed and substituted for five months; leave to apply for home detention was reserved pending an updated address report and occupier consent with specific consideration of COVID-19 risks.
5 Sept 2019

YURAK v CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS [2019] NZHC 2206

Citation

[2019] NZHC 2206
Court

High Court

Where an offender was sentenced to imprisonment, had that sentence converted to home detention and later re-sentenced to imprisonment for the same offending, the period spent serving the original term of imprisonment must be taken into account in calculating the total period of detention and the statutory release date; the mechanical calculation of pre-sentence detention and key dates is for the Department of Corrections under the Parole Act (ss88,90–92) and not for the re-sentencing judge, and statutes must be read purposively and consistently with s22 NZBORA to avoid arbitrary detention.
12 Mar 2019

G v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2019] NZHC 411

Citation

[2019] NZHC 411
Court

High Court

The District Court sentence of thirteen months and two weeks imprisonment was manifestly excessive in all the circumstances; having assessed starting point and aggravating/mitigating features, and accounting for time already served and electronic monitoring, the appropriate disposal was to set aside the custodial sentence and impose three weeks home detention from the date of judgment subject to standard conditions.
8 Jun 2018

WILSON v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2018] NZHC 1352

Citation

[2018] NZHC 1352
Court

High Court

Failure to deduct pre-sentence remand detention when substituting imprisonment with home detention constituted an error of arithmetic warranting appellate intervention; accordingly the 10 months' home detention was quashed and substituted with 3 months' home detention to account for approximately six months remand credit, commencement 10 October 2017.
13 Mar 2018

HENRY v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2018] NZHC 394

Citation

[2018] NZHC 394
Court

High Court

The appeal is dismissed because the sentencing Judge did not err in principle: s80K(6) requires taking time served into account but does not compel a mathematical halving; the Judge expressly considered time served and exercised the permissible evaluative discretion in imposing eight months' home detention, which was not manifestly excessive.