New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

New Zealand Case Law

Role in offending

  • 30 Jun 2022

    CAVALLO v R [2022] NZCA 276

    Citation
    [2022] NZCA 276
    Court
    Court of Appeal

    Fresh expert evidence admitted; cocaine powder is, on the evidence, somewhat less harmful and less toxic than methamphetamine but capable of conversion to more harmful crack; intra-class differentiation is permissible where evidence justifies it; sentencing starting points for cocaine should not exceed methamphetamine starting points and generally attract a modest (around 5%) downward adjustment from equivalent methamphetamine starting points; applying the two-stage analysis and case-specific discounts (foreign national status, guilty pleas, rehabilitation/good character where established) th…

  • 19 Mar 2021

    WANG v R [2021] NZCA 79

    Citation
    [2021] NZCA 79
    Court
    Court of Appeal

    The Court allowed the appeal because the District Court misapplied the Zhang banding when selecting the starting point for methamphetamine importation; a six year starting point for methamphetamine was appropriate given the lesser role and quantity, the three year uplift for separate MDMA importation was within range, and the youth discount should be increased to 15%, resulting in a substituted sentence of four years' imprisonment.

  • 4 Dec 2019

    BAIRDS v POLICE [2019] NZHC 3181

    Citation
    [2019] NZHC 3181
    Court
    High Court

    The High Court held the District Court did not err: the starting point and total sentence were within the permissible range for this level of commercial cannabis offending, the Judge reasonably assessed role and mitigation, the uplift for failing to appear and offending while on home detention was somewhat high but not sufficient to make the overall sentence manifestly excessive, and available evidence did not establish addiction as the primary driver of the offending; therefore the appeal was dismissed and sentence upheld.