New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Reparation credit

Legal area

Court

21 Sept 2023

ANDERSON v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2023] NZHC 2644

Citation

[2023] NZHC 2644
Court

High Court

Full reparation paid voluntarily and prior to sentencing, at significant personal sacrifice, warranted increasing the reparation discount to 25%; no additional separate discount for remorse was warranted given belated or disputed expressions of remorse; other discounts (25% guilty plea, 5% good character) were unchanged; resulting global adjustment from the starting point yields a substituted sentence of seven months' home detention (quashing nine months).
23 May 2018

HARNETT v MINISTRY OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT [2018] NZHC 1160

Citation

[2018] NZHC 1160
Court

High Court

The starting point of four years and two months imprisonment was within the available range given the large and prolonged fraudulent extraction of benefits; the sentencing judge correctly allowed discounts of 5% for personal factors, 20% for reparation and 25% for an early guilty plea and correctly applied the arithmetic to produce a final sentence of two years and four months imprisonment; repayment and a guilty plea did not obviate the need for imprisonment and home detention was inappropriate; appeal dismissed.
18 Jul 2017

HAREMA-WATTS v R [2017] NZCA 306

Citation

[2017] NZCA 306
Court

Court of Appeal

The Court held the starting point of three years six months imprisonment was justified by the appellant's central role in luring, arranging and detaining the victim and the significant injuries caused; although the judge should have given a discrete discount for reparation the omission did not render the end sentence manifestly excessive, and the appeals were dismissed.
9 Mar 2017

TAWHAI v MINISTRY OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT [2017] NZHC 392

Citation

[2017] NZHC 392
Court

High Court

The High Court held the sentencing Judge did not err in declining discrete credit for remorse because the remorse appeared self-interested, and did not err in declining credit for repayment by compulsory future deductions; the overall sentence (two years one month) was not manifestly excessive and the appeal was dismissed.

New Zealand Case Law

ANDERSON v NEW ZEALAND POLICE [2023] NZHC 2644

HARNETT v MINISTRY OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT [2018] NZHC 1160

HAREMA-WATTS v R [2017] NZCA 306

TAWHAI v MINISTRY OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT [2017] NZHC 392