New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

Topic

Culpability

Legal area

Court

10 Feb 2020

BEASLEY v R [2020] NZHC 113

Citation

[2020] NZHC 113
Court

High Court

The six months' community detention was manifestly excessive given mitigating factors including limited personal benefit and culpability (dupe/wilful blindness), early guilty plea, active role in disclosing and stopping the offending, partial recovery of loss and the appellant's personal circumstances; accordingly the sentence was reduced to six weeks' community detention while keeping the community work and reparation unchanged.
7 Nov 2016

MINISTRY FOR PRIMARY INDUSTRIES v ERICKSON [2016] NZHC 2635

Citation

[2016] NZHC 2635
Court

High Court

The High Court found the District Court erred in its treatment of lack of training and supervision (risk of double counting), held that lack of training reduced culpability but only modestly (three months), adopted a proper starting point of three years six months, allowed a 25% guilty plea discount plus a further 5% for personal circumstances, and substituted the sentence with two years' imprisonment (quashing the home detention and community work order).