New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Sentence parity

Legal area

Court

25 Jul 2023

R v LOTE-TELEA [2023] NZHC 1959

Citation

[2023] NZHC 1959
Court

High Court

Having found the defendant an active participant in large-scale, violent prison arson and related offending, the Court set a starting point of 11 years for the arson with danger to life charges, adjusted uplift to achieve parity with co-defendants to a global starting point of 11 years 9 months, allowed a 10% personal mitigation discount (rounded to 15 months) producing an end global sentence of 10 years 6 months' imprisonment to be served concurrently on all counts, and declined to impose a minimum period of imprisonment; the sentence was driven by scale, risk to life, victim impact and role…
24 Nov 2022

R v THOMPSON [2022] NZHC 3091

Citation

[2022] NZHC 3091
Court

High Court

The court adopted a global starting point for participation in an organised criminal group of six years nine months to reflect planning, organisation and use of firearms; increased the starting point by six months for a prior serious aggravated robbery conviction to seven years three months; reduced that by one year two months for s27 report rehabilitation and by 13 months (approx. 15%) for a late guilty plea, resulting in an effective sentence of five years' imprisonment to be served concurrently with two-year terms on other charges.
22 May 2018

R v SEHGAL [2018] NZHC 1145

Citation

[2018] NZHC 1145
Court

High Court

Having assessed aggravating factors (planning, victim vulnerability, breach of trust proxied by assistance to primary offender, duration and scale, and financial benefit) and limited mitigation (no prior convictions; limited credit for guilty plea due to attempted flight; no credit for remorse), the appropriate overall starting point was fixed at 5 years 9 months, reduced by three months for good character and by ten months for the guilty plea to an end sentence of 4 years 8 months imprisonment, with a minimum term of 2 years 4 months before parole eligibility on the dealing charges.
12 Nov 2014

COLLINS EZE v R [2014] NZSC 163

Citation

[2014] NZSC 163
Court

Supreme Court

Leave to appeal dismissed because the alleged errors were either already considered by the Court of Appeal or, in the case of the unraised assistance ground, unsupported on the material before the Court and insufficient to show a real risk of miscarriage of justice.

New Zealand Case Law

R v LOTE-TELEA [2023] NZHC 1959

R v THOMPSON [2022] NZHC 3091

R v SEHGAL [2018] NZHC 1145

COLLINS EZE v R [2014] NZSC 163