R v Anania

[2013] NZHC 1975

IN THE HIGH COURT OF NEW ZEALAND WHANGAREI REGISTRY

CRI-2013-088-000497 [2013] NZHC 1975

THE QUEEN

v

PERAMARI MIKAIRE ANANIA

Hearing:                   7 August 2013

Appearances:           M Jarman-Taylor for Crown

A M Dooney for Prisoner

Judgment:                7 August 2013

SENTENCING NOTES OF ELLIS J

Solicitors:

Crown Solicitor, Whangarei
Counsel:

A M Dooney, Whangarei

R v ANANIA [2013] NZHC 1975 [7 August 2013]

[1]      Mr Anania, you appear for sentence today having pleaded guilty to one count of possession of cannabis for the purposes of supply.1    I now convict you on that charge. The maximum sentence that can be imposed is eight years imprisonment.

[2]      You  are  already  in  jail  because  you  were  sentenced  to  two  years  and

11 months’ imprisonment on 22 March this year.  The offence for which I am going to sentence you today occurred when you were on bail awaiting sentence for that other offending, which involved a charge of injuring with intent to injure.   I have read the summary of facts in relation to that incident and there is no doubt that it was a nasty one.

Facts

[3]      The facts that gave rise to the cannabis charge are that on 11 February 2013, the police executed a search warrant at your home.  You were there with your father, another family member and three pre-school aged children.

[4]      The Police found two jars containing a total of 44 tinnies under a couch.  The Police also found a small metal tin on the couch which contained $185 in mostly $20 notes and a small amount of cannabis wrapped in tin foil.

[5]      The Police also found half a roll of tin foil and four pieces of tin foil in the same measurements as  those used to make the tinnies in the jars.  Other things relating to the smoking or sale of cannabis were found around the house as well.

[6]      You told the Police that the cannabis was yours and that you get it in 25 gram amounts for your own personal use.

Personal circumstances and the circumstances of your offending

[7]      Now I need to say something about you personally and about other things relevant to your offending.

[8]      As I understand it, you are 22 years old.  You have 23 prior convictions for other offending including violence and dishonesty as well as for breach of home detention and community work, but this is your first drug-related conviction.

[9]      You were on EM bail awaiting sentence for that other violent offending at the time of the Police search.  The writer of the pre-sentence report that I read said there is  a high  risk  of  your  hurting others  and  that  you  have  shown  not  very much understanding about the bad effects of what you have done, including the effect on your daughter and family.

[10]     You have written a letter to the Court in which you say that you accept full responsibility for what you did and you say that you have had drug and alcohol problems, since you were nine.  You have asked that you be admitted into a drug rehabilitation programme, and I certainly do hope that that occurs.  I accept, for what it is worth, that you want to turn your life around and overcome your addictions.

[11]     Mr Anania, when I sentence you there are a number of things that the law says I am required to take into account.  In cases like this, the Court’s main goal in sentencing you is to condemn what you have done and to try and put you and others off doing things like this in the future.  If possible, the sentence is also supposed to help you get better, to stop offending and to get back into society.

[12]     It is also important to try and arrive at a sentence that is consistent with other similar cases, but your case is a bit unusual because, as I have said, you are already in jail.

[13]     Because of the number of tinnies and the money that you were found with on

11 February, I think that it is clear that there was some commercial element to what you were doing, and the Court of Appeal has said that this means that the relevant starting point for your sentence should be between two and four years imprisonment. In your case the Crown and your lawyer are more or less agreed that the starting point should be at the lower end of that range and my view is that two years and two

months would be appropriate and consistent with similar cases.2

[14]     I  agree  with  the  Crown  that  the  presence  of  the  young  children  is  an aggravating factor, and I also agree with the Crown that the starting point should be increased by two months because this offence was committed while you were on EM Bail.  I do not intend to impose any further uplift for your past offending.

[15]     I accept that you should get a discount of 25 per cent for your guilty plea, and the Crown does not really dispute this.  Ordinarily that would mean that I was going to  impose an  end  sentence of  21  months  in  prison,  but  as  I have said,  that  is complicated by the fact that you are already in jail.

[16]     The  offending for which  you  are presently in  jail  is  so unrelated  to  the offending for which you are being sentenced today that it is appropriate to impose a sentence on top of the one that you are serving.  Your lawyer accepted this.  But at the same time the lawyers are also agreed that I need to have regard to the totality of your offending, by which I mean that the cannabis offending and the injuring with intent to injure, and not to impose a further sentence on you which is crushing or out of all proportion to the seriousness of your total offending.  I need to hold out some hope to you for your rehabilitation.

[17]     So rather than impose an additional sentence of 21 months imprisonment on top of the two years and 11 months you are already serving, I am going to sentence you on the present charge in a way that produces a total effective sentence of three years 11 months imprisonment.3   So in other words, I am adding a further 12 months imprisonment to your present sentence for the supply of cannabis charge instead of

21 months.

Result

[18]     So if you can stand now please, Mr Anania.

2009; R v Awa HC Auckland CRI 2007-035-002197, 17 February 2009; R v Wolland HC Auckland CRI-2010-092-13356, 18 February 2011.

3      Parole Act 2002, s 75.

[19]     On the charge of possessing cannabis for the purpose of supply I sentence you to 12 months imprisonment.  As I have explained, that means that 12 months is

going to be added to your existing sentence for the injuring offence.

Rebecca Ellis J