New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Possession for supply of methamphetamine

Legal area

Court

16 Dec 2022

R v MATHERS [2022] NZHC 3473

Citation

[2022] NZHC 3473
Court

High Court

Defendant's methamphetamine offending fell in Zhang band 4 (at least 500g and other commercial quantities). The court found the defendant at the higher end of the significant role and set a methamphetamine starting point at 9 years 6 months. A 12‑month uplift was applied for firearms, producing a global starting point of 10 years 6 months. The court then applied discounts: 10% for causative background influences, 10% for rehabilitative prospects, 5% for otherwise good character, 15% for early guilty plea, and credited 10 months for time on EM bail, resulting in an end sentence of 5 years 6 mo…
5 Oct 2022

R v TAMAL EDWARD MCMEEKAN [2022] NZHC 2557

Citation

[2022] NZHC 2557
Court

High Court

Defendant's role was at the top end of the 'lesser' category under Zhang, justifying reduction of the Band 5 starting point to 7.5 years (90 months); apply a 10% uplift for prior offending then discounts of 20% (guilty plea), 10% (established disadvantage/PTSD under s27) and 7.5% (time on recall credit equating to six months) producing an overall 27.5% reduction from the 90-month starting point, resulting in an effective sentence of five years and five months for the methamphetamine offence; concurrent terms for related offences and no minimum period under s86 were imposed.
29 Sept 2022

R v SINGER [2022] NZHC 2488

Citation

[2022] NZHC 2488
Court

High Court

Starting point of 18 months' imprisonment for accessory after the fact to possession for supply of methamphetamine was appropriate given seriousness and deliberate assistance; after a 10% uplift for prior convictions and discounts of 20% for guilty plea, 10% for rehabilitation and credit of nine months for EM bail, the appropriate final outcome was 12 months' community supervision rather than imprisonment or intensive supervision because statutory criteria for intensive supervision were not met and further detention was unnecessary.
6 Dec 2021

GRIFFIN v R [2021] NZHC 3317

Citation

[2021] NZHC 3317
Court

High Court

The High Court dismissed the appeal. The starting point for the methamphetamine offending was within range given the appellant's active role as a street-level dealer; the 15% personal mitigation discount applied by the District Court was generous and should not have been extended across all offending; no additional discount for remorse or rehabilitation was warranted; no further totality adjustment was required; the end sentence of five years' imprisonment was not manifestly excessive and was affirmed.
18 Feb 2020

MOREHU v R [2020] NZHC 196

Citation

[2020] NZHC 196
Court

High Court

Failure to acknowledge that time spent in custody following parole recall can attract a discretionary credit was an error; to avoid double punishment courts should allow a discount for recall time (commonly around two-thirds of the recall period), and where such an error affects the overall sentence the appellate court will adjust the sentence accordingly; applying that approach a five month discount for 11 months recall was appropriate and warranted substituting the sentence from 2 years 7 months to 2 years 2 months' imprisonment.
27 Aug 2018

R v McGRATH [2018] NZHC 2212

Citation

[2018] NZHC 2212
Court

High Court

Starting point set at 15 years for Band 4 methamphetamine offending with a 12 month uplift for extensive possession of incapacitated and high-capacity firearms (combined starting point 16 years); applied a 15% discount for the causal contribution of defendant's diagnosed OCD and anxiety and a 25% discount for an early guilty plea, producing an effective sentence of 10 years and one month imprisonment; concurrent two year sentence on the remaining charges; declined to impose a minimum sentence beyond that otherwise applicable under the Parole Act; granted temporary suppression of identificatio…
9 Mar 2018

R v JOSHUA MASON KITE [2018] NZHC 409

Citation

[2018] NZHC 409
Court

High Court

Court treated Auckland drug offending and Whangarei violent offending as different in kind and sentenced cumulatively. Applied R v Fatu banding for methamphetamine: starting point 5 years reduced to 4 years after 20% guilty plea discount. Adopted an 8-year starting point for using a firearm against a constable, uplifted for related offending to an effective determinate sentence of 7 years 6 months on the firearm charge, allowed personal uplifts and mitigations (including 14 months credit for time on recall and 20% guilty plea discount overall), rejected preventive detention as unnecessary, an…
14 Nov 2017

MCGARRETT v R [2017] NZHC 2785

Citation

[2017] NZHC 2785
Court

High Court

The sentencing Judge erred by giving an effectively negligible guilty plea discount due to an apparent arithmetic error; on review the starting point of 42 months was appropriate, EM bail credit for 27 months and 1 week warranted a 12-month reduction, remorse and rehabilitation warranted a two-month reduction, and a 10% guilty plea discount was appropriate, resulting in an aggregate sentence of 25 months (two years one month) which replaces the original two years six months sentence; appeal allowed and sentence altered accordingly.
6 Sept 2017

NAULEO v THE QUEEN [2017] NZHC 2149

Citation

[2017] NZHC 2149
Court

High Court

A four‑year starting point for possession of approximately 33.9g methamphetamine with limited additional indicia of commerciality falls within the Fatu band 2 range; however, where the offender complied with an extremely restrictive 24‑hour electronically monitored bail for over 19 months a substantial discount (nine months) plus a discrete credit for rehabilitative efforts (three months) is required, yielding a 12‑month reduction and a substituted sentence of two years two months.