New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

New Zealand Case Law

Credit for pre‑sentence custody

  • 14 Sept 2022

    BOYD v R [2022] NZHC 2361

    Citation
    [2022] NZHC 2361
    Court
    High Court

    Failure to give full credit for the appellant's total period of custodial remand (184 days) was an error; applying the Longman approach of one-for-one credit for custodial remand reduced the effective home detention sentence and rendered the original five-month home detention manifestly excessive, warranting substitution with a one-month home detention sentence.

    • Credit for pre-sentence custody
    • Home detention
    • Remand calculation
    • Electronic monitoring bail

  • 29 Jul 2022

    MASON v NZ POLICE [2022] NZHC 1845

    Citation
    [2022] NZHC 1845
    Court
    High Court

    The appeal is allowed because the sentencing Judge erred in failing to account for approximately three months' remand custody; the correct approach is to treat remand credit as a one‑for‑one deduction from the term of home detention (applied after commuting the end imprisonment term to home detention) as a starting point in an evaluative exercise; applying a full three‑month credit reduces the home detention sentence from ten to seven months and no factors warranted reducing that credit.

    • Credit for pre‑sentence custody
    • Home detention conversion
    • Sentence calculation methodology
    • Appeal against sentence

  • 17 Dec 2020

    SLADE v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2020] NZHC 3396

    Citation
    [2020] NZHC 3396
    Court
    High Court

    Sentencing judges must deduct pre-sentence custodial remand from the nominal imprisonment term before commuting that term to home detention; full equivalence for remand time is the norm. Applying that principle here, five months' remand required reduction of the commuted home detention so the six months' home detention was quashed and replaced with one month; the Judge's starting point was within the available range and not manifestly inadequate.

    • Home detention
    • Credit for pre-sentence custody
    • Driving while disqualified
    • Dangerous driving
    • Failure to stop
    • Manifestly excessive sentence

  • 19 Jul 2019

    PARKINSON v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2019] NZHC 1710

    Citation
    [2019] NZHC 1710
    Court
    High Court

    The Court held the provisional 29-month sentence reflected culpability but the 12-month uplift for prior convictions plus a one-month uplift for cannabis possession was excessive; remand credit of 11 weeks must be separately deducted when converting to home detention; after deducting one month from the uplift and crediting 11 weeks' remand the sentence is 17 months imprisonment, converted to eight and a half months home detention; appeal allowed and 10 months home detention quashed and substituted with 8.5 months home detention.

    • Burglary
    • Possession of cannabis
    • Home detention
    • Previous convictions uplift
    • Credit for pre-sentence custody
    • Electronic monitoring bail

  • 28 Nov 2017

    LONGMAN v POLICE [2017] NZHC 2928

    Citation
    [2017] NZHC 2928
    Court
    High Court

    EM bail credit is assessed when fixing the appropriate imprisonment term and, for a short period of EM bail (2.5 months on 24-hour curfew with no breaches), one month credit against the imprisonment starting point was appropriate; custodial remand credit should normally be given in full when converting an imprisonment term to home detention, leading to quashing the seven month home detention and substituting five months; totality adjustment had been applied incorrectly but did not preclude correcting failure to credit time served in custody.

    • Credit for time on em bail
    • Credit for pre-sentence custody
    • Totality principle
    • Guilty plea discount