4 Dec 2023
The District Court erred procedurally by failing to apportion and record separate discounts for the guilty plea, s 27 report factors and personal mitigation; however, the resulting sentence of 22 months and eight days imprisonment was within the permissible range and not manifestly excessive, so the High Court will not interfere; leave to appeal out of time granted but appeal dismissed.
19 Oct 2023
The High Court admitted the s 27 pre-sentence report because it materially expanded evidence of positive rehabilitative efforts; the District Court erred in applying a delay uplift as the decision not to proceed with a sentence indication did not materially delay disposition; a modest uplift for prior dishonesty convictions was available but offending while on bail is properly characterised as an aggravating personal factor in this case; appropriate discounts were 10% for addiction and 10% for exceptional rehabilitation plus 25% for guilty plea and remorse (total 45%), yielding a net global r…
9 Nov 2022
The High Court found the 20% uplift for offending while on release conditions and on bail was excessive and that an uplift of 10–15% would have been appropriate, but declined to admit the s27 cultural report as fresh evidence because it was not obtained at first instance, relied largely on self‑reporting, and did not materially add to the pre‑sentence report; the 10% allowance for personal circumstances was not an error; accordingly the appeal was dismissed and the District Court sentence of 26 months' imprisonment was affirmed.
27 Jul 2021
The Court admitted the s 27 report, upheld the 18 month uplift for past offending as justified by serious, repetitive weaponised offending shortly after release, quashed the 6 month uplift for offending while on bail as excessive in combination with the prior offending uplift, and quashed the MPI to permit access to rehabilitative opportunities, substituting four concurrent sentences of 12 years 10 months for the original 14 years.
30 Mar 2020
The Judge's starting point for the violence offending (four years and nine months) was within range given the protracted, closed‑door strangulation causing loss of consciousness, multiple assaults including repeated punches to the head, threats with a knife, breach of trust and prior violent history; the combined starting point of six years ten months was not wholly disproportionate given the separate offending over six months and substantial uplifts for prior convictions and offending while on bail, and the substantial discounts for mitigation rendered the final sentence appropriate; appeal…
16 Dec 2019
The High Court held the District Court's 20 month starting point for the Invercargill offending was within range given the combination of loaded, readily accessible sawn-off shotgun and drugs in a vehicle and offending on bail; the sworn affidavit did not establish limited involvement or duress to reduce culpability; the uplift for offending on bail was justified and the Judge's discounts were generous, so the end sentence of six months' home detention was not manifestly excessive and the appeal was dismissed.
31 Jul 2019
The Court upheld the starting point and the uplift for the quantity of methamphetamine but found the combined uplift for prior record and offending while on bail was excessive because it in part double counted conduct already addressed in earlier sentencing; reducing those uplifts by three months produced an appropriate sentence, resulting in replacement of the dangerous driving sentence from 32 months to 30 months' imprisonment.
13 Jun 2019
Extension of time to file the appeal is granted but leave to appeal is declined because the applicant failed to identify a matter of general or public importance and did not demonstrate a miscarriage of justice; the sentence, including the three and a half year starting point and six month uplift for prior convictions and offending while on bail, was within available range given multiple aggravating factors and was not manifestly excessive despite the District Court's error about the number of bail breaches.
10 May 2019
The High Court dismissed the appeal because the District Court sentence of 180 hours community work was within an acceptable range and not manifestly excessive. The sentencing judge's comments as to addiction did not amount to an appealable error that altered the outcome; the ongoing nature of offending and re-offending while on bail justified a community work sentence and rendered a fine inappropriate. No evidential basis warranted substituting a different sentence.
15 Feb 2019
The High Court held the aggregate sentence of three years and seven months was not manifestly excessive because the Judge's overall starting point of five years was at the low end of the available range given three distinct clusters of serious offending, the limited uplift for prior convictions was conservative and omissions (such as not expressly uplifting for offending on bail) did not render the end sentence erroneous; appeal dismissed.