R v Read

[2014] NZHC 1734

IN THE HIGH COURT OF NEW ZEALAND TAURANGA REGISTRY

CRI-2011-070-7563

CRI-2012-070-1397 [2014] NZHC 1734

THE QUEEN

v

GARY JOHN READ

Hearing:	24 July 2014
Appearances:	TP Refoy-Butler for Crown SNB Wimsett for Prisoner, on instructions from P Mabey QC
Re-sentence:	24 July 2014

RE-SENTENCING NOTES OF TOOGOOD J

R v READ [2014] NZHC 1734 [24 July 2014]

[1]      Mr Read:   you may sit down.  Although we have gone through a ritual as though you were being re-sentenced on all charges, that is not the way I propose to deal with this.

[2]      I am sorry you have been inconvenienced by being brought here but, as you know, it is necessary for me to correct the error in your original sentence to avoid causing you an injustice.  I need to explain why that is.

[3]      On 9 August 2013, I sentenced you to terms of imprisonment on 70 counts of importing pseudoephedrine and other drug dealing and related offences.1    The total effective end sentence of 11 years’ imprisonment was made up of a combination of cumulative and concurrent sentences.  On the importation charges, I sentenced you to eight years’ imprisonment on each charge, to be served concurrently; I directed that  you  should  serve  a  minimum  period  of  five  years  and  three  months’

imprisonment on those charges before being eligible for parole.  I also sentenced you to  three  years’ imprisonment  on  one  count  of  possessing  methamphetamine  for supply.

[4]      However  you  pointed  out,  to  your  credit,  that  the  effect  of  the  relevant provisions of the Parole Act is that the statutory minimum period of one third of your sentence on the methamphetamine charge must be added to the minimum period I imposed on the importation charges.2   That means that, on the basis of the sentences imposed last year, you will have to serve a year longer than I intended before you become eligible for parole.

[5]      On 15 July 2014, at the joint request of your counsel, Mr Mabey QC, and counsel for the Crown, Mr Jenson, I issued a judgment acknowledging that it was necessary  for  me  to  correct  the  error  in  the  original  sentence  by  reducing  the

minimum period of imprisonment on the importation charges.3

1      R v Read [2013] NZHC 2005.

2      Parole Act 2002, ss 20(1) and 84(1).

3      R v Read [2014] NZHC 1651.

Orders

[6]      Mr Read, will you please stand.

[7]      Exercising the Court’s inherent jurisdiction, and its implied jurisdiction under the Sentencing Act 2002, I recall the order I made on 9 August 2013 that you should serve a minimum period of imprisonment of five years three months on the charges of importing pseudoephedrine.  In place of that order, I direct that you shall serve a minimum period of imprisonment of four years and three months on each of the

70 counts of importing pseudoephedrine on which you were sentenced to eight years’

imprisonment.

[8]      The  remainder  of  the  sentences  imposed  shall  stand,  meaning  that  your effective end sentence is one of eleven years imprisonment, of which you shall serve a  minimum  period  of  four  years  and  three  months’ imprisonment  before  being eligible for parole.

[9]      Please stand down.

……………………………

Toogood J