R v Toki
[2024] NZHC 3783
•10 December 2024
IN THE HIGH COURT OF NEW ZEALAND WELLINGTON REGISTRY
I TE KŌTI MATUA O AOTEAROA TE WHANGANUI-A-TARA ROHE
CRI-2022-085-002285
[2024] NZHC 3783
THE KING v
JAMIE-LEE SONIA TOKI
Hearing: 10 December 2024 Counsel:
M Story for Crown
J Owers for Defendant
Sentencing:
10 December 2024
SENTENCING REMARKS OF GRAU J
[1] Ms Toki you appear for sentencing today at the age of 30 having pleaded guilty to:
(a)six charges of receiving.1 One was a representative charge, four other receiving charges related to items worth over $1,000, one was receiving an item worth between $500 and $1,000; and
(b)one charge of obtaining by deception.2
1 Crimes Act 1961, ss 246, 247(a), and 66(1), maximum penalty seven years’ imprisonment; and s 247(b) maximum penalty one year imprisonment.
2 Crimes Act 1961, ss 240(1)(a) and 241(a), maximum penalty seven years’ imprisonment.
R v TOKI (SENTENCING) [2024] NZHC 3783 [10 December 2024]
[2] You accepted a sentence indication from Radich J in August. Radich J indicated a starting point for sentence of four years’ imprisonment in relation to all of these charges.
[3] It is usual for the Judge who gives a sentence indication to then carry on to do the sentencing. But that is not inevitable. I am doing the sentencing because Radich J is not available, and on the basis that I have agreed with Radich J about the starting point for sentence and the reductions that he mentioned. So, I am not departing from that starting point or the other matters that he indicated.
[4] What I need to decide today is the question of reductions beyond the 25 per cent for your guilty pleas. Those further reductions are to reflect your personal circumstances.
[5] I have sentenced another co-offender this morning and I will sentence another co-offender tomorrow. Of course the principal offender, Mr Soon, has already been sentenced on 21 receiving charges and he received an end sentence of three years and 10 months’ imprisonment.
The offending
[6] The offending was summarised by Radich J in his sentence indication. This was a large-scale operation involving stolen property. Mr Soon had connections throughout Wellington and a network of people who were either stealing property for him or selling stolen property to him, and he had people helping him to onsell it.
[7] You were one of two people who were Mr Soon’s most significant providers of stolen property and you acted as a receiver yourself as well. You would obtain property. Mr Soon would collect it or arrange for you to leave it at one of his storage lockers that he was renting.
[8] During 2022, you were in regular communication with Mr Soon. The summary of facts says that between July and October 2022 you were averaging about 75 communications every week and these were almost entirely about the sale and purchase of stolen property or other property that had been obtained illegally.
[9] Your also were the largest receiver of bank transfers from Mr Soon. There were 70 transactions between May and September 2022 that totalled $36,240 in bank transfers from Mr Soon.
[10] Police were watching Mr Soon. They saw him at your address many times, items being placed into his vehicle, and cash was exchanged. Text messages indicated that you sold over $75,000 worth of items to Mr Soon. Then the other members of his network would sell this property on. This operation led to Police recovering over
$2.9 million worth of property.
[11]The representative receiving charge relates to property valued at just over
$50,000 found in a storage unit. You had your own key to this unit and you would drop items off there for Mr Soon to access.
[12] The five receiving charges related to specific items of stolen property, including:
(a)a scooter that you were seen riding shortly after it was stolen;
(b)scaffolding that you obtained for Mr Soon;
(c)doors and door frames that had been stolen from construction sites;
(d)an E-bike; and
(e)a caravan that Mr Soon passed onto you to arrange to have it repainted and registered.
[13] You also collected three heat pumps from an electrical store pretending to be an employee of a company. Police recovered those at a storage unit.
Starting point
[14] Justice Radich said your culpability was high. You were involved in a commercial operation, goods recovered were worth over $75,000, and offending over many months.
[15] His Honour described your position as significant in this operation. You were not the ringleader but you were proactive. You were promoting items you could obtain to Mr Soon, many items associated with you were found in storage. The text messaging between you and Mr Soon did not suggest vulnerability on your part, but rather active involvement. Justice Radich noted many innocent people have been victims of your offending.
[16] With reference to a number of sentencing decisions for receiving, Radich J adopted a starting point of four years’ imprisonment, indicating, as I have said, you would have a reduction of 25 per cent for pleading guilty and further reductions were possible.
Information at sentencing
[17] Now I have further information about you for sentencing. There is a pre- sentence report dated 2 December. At that time, Community Corrections were not able to assess your address for an electronically monitored sentence but that has now happened. You did agree with the summary of facts when you spoke to the report writer, but, as the Crown says, you did, in a way, downplay your offending. The report identified that the offending was related to alcohol use and associates, and the report writer has recommended special conditions for you if you do not go to prison—which we will get to. You now have an address that is available. The Crown (very fairly) do not oppose you receiving a sentence other than imprisonment but as Mr Owers has said, and I am sure he has told you, that it is a close thing because make no mistake about it, this was a very high-level of offending in your case.
[18] I have read the alcohol and drug assessment and that tells me a lot about you. And sadly from a good start in life, then becoming a qualified flight attendant, your life became “unstuck” (if I can put it that way). You had problematic alcohol use, and
you had two major losses in the lead up to this offending which I accept have had a major impact on you—your father and your daughter. It looks like, after that time, you spiralled into a very unstructured life where you were drinking and you were associating with the wrong people. You already had some mental health challenges and all of these matters seem to have got worse. There was also the fact of an abusive relationship at that time.
[19] But things have got better, really since you were caught. In a way that is probably the most positive thing that has come out of this. There has been no offending on bail. You have been on bail a very long time I suspect.
[20] You are said to be motivated to address alcohol. You will need to do that. It is probably the case that you will have to stop drinking and never drink again. I am not an alcohol expert but generally when a person has very problematic drinking there is no way they can go back to moderate drinking, so (at least in the short term), you have got a lot of work to do.
[21] Mr Owers says that your motivation is your daughter, because you want her back. That is a powerful motivation for you and you will have a job to do in the Family Court to demonstrate to them that is something that should happen.
[22] You now have a supportive partner and I have read his letter of support which is very powerful. I have also read your letter of remorse. You take full responsibility for what has happened. I accept that that is genuine.
[23] The Crown did raise some concerns with things you have said in the pre- sentence report. But they acknowledge you should receive credit for your personal matters that helped to explain this offending, when you have never really been in trouble with the law before. And for you, Mr Owers says that home detention (with some community work as well), is the best approach here because it will rehabilitate you, and your offending is very well explained now. It is something that is not really you, but has been a combination of your circumstances. He says you have strong support from whānau (who are here today), and I acknowledge them. You have a very good chance of turning your life around.
[24] I agree that it is a close call between prison and home detention, but in my view, there is a much greater public interest in you being rehabilitated—being with whānau, being with your daughter when you can, and going on to live what we call “a pro-social life”. There is a much greater public interest in making sure that you are never back in court again than in sending you to prison for a time where you are far less likely to be able to get the help that you need.
[25] I assess that a 15 per cent reduction is available for the personal matters that I have read about, that show a very clear connection to your offending. I am also prepared to give a further reduction of 10 per cent and that is to reflect your remorse that I accept as genuine, and to reflect the strong prospects for rehabilitation that you have on a sentence of home detention, with the support of your whānau and your partner who is supportive of you.
[26] Making those reductions takes your sentence from four years’ imprisonment down to two years’ imprisonment. That is at the level where the Court can impose a sentence short of imprisonment.
[27] I am going to commute your sentence to 12 months’ home detention to be served at your home detention address. There are some special conditions that will apply to your home detention for the 12 months of detention and then for 12 months after that, as post-detention conditions.
[28] This is not a soft option. It will be difficult for you. It is a long time to be cooped up at home. And for that reason as well, I am going to impose 100 hours of community work. That is an additional punishment because you are on the cusp of receiving a sentence of imprisonment for the seriousness of the offending, but it will also have a benefit for you in getting you out of the house, it is a good opportunity to get some skills that will help in employment.
[29] I am not going to read out the special conditions of the home detention. They are about attending programmes, counselling, alcohol and drugs and other counselling that is available. It is my hope that, as part of those special conditions, there can be programmes in the nature of parenting and employment, so that you will be assisted
in all of those matters to make a really positive start when your home detention finishes.
[30] That is the sentence, and I wish you luck Ms Toki, and kia ora e te whānau— thank you for coming. You will need to do some hard mahi with Ms Toki as well, to get her back on the right track. Ka pai, thank you.
Addendum
[31] After I had sentenced Ms Toki, Mr Owers advised the Court, via email, that Ms Toki had two unresolved charges before the District Court, whereas I had said in my sentencing decision (at [19]) that there had been no further offending while Ms Toki was on bail. I thank Mr Owers for bringing this matter to my attention. I do not intend to make any adjustment to Ms Toki’s sentence: the charges being unresolved, are not proved. However, as I am sure Mr Owers will advise Ms Toki, any further offending while Ms Toki is serving her home detention sentence has the potential to lead to that sentence becoming unsuitable, and an application to cancel it and impose a sentence of imprisonment in its place.
Grau J
Solicitors:
Crown Solicitor, Wellington
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