New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

New Zealand Case Law

Mitigation for addiction and trauma

  • 16 Nov 2021

    R v BECKETT [2021] NZHC 3118

    Citation
    [2021] NZHC 3118
    Court
    High Court

    Court held starting point for strangulation at 30 months (2 years 6 months), added nine months uplift for the related prolonged May offending and six months uplift for the April threatening-to-do-GBH matter producing a 45-month combined starting point; added three months for offending while on bail; then reduced the sentence for personal mitigation (20%), deducted three months for seven months on EM bail, allowed 10% for late guilty plea and one month for remorse, resulting in a final custodial sentence of 29 months' imprisonment as the appropriate, proportionate and least restrictive sentenc…

  • 1 May 2020

    BANKS v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2020] NZHC 859

    Citation
    [2020] NZHC 859
    Court
    High Court

    The Court corrected a mathematical error in the District Court's starting point (from 4 years 7 months to 4 years 4 months), upheld the appropriateness of most uplifts (theft, deception, drug charges, failure to answer bail, reckless driving), avoided double counting by reducing some uplifts, accepted a 10% discrete discount for addiction and traumatic background on persuasive report evidence and a 20% guilty plea discount, and concluded the correct final sentence is three years' imprisonment served cumulatively on the existing sentence; the appeal was therefore allowed and the original 3 yea…