Zamani v The King

[2023] NZHC 2133

IN THE HIGH COURT OF NEW ZEALAND AUCKLAND REGISTRY

I TE KŌTI MATUA O AOTEAROA TĀMAKI MAKAURAU ROHE

CRI-2023-404-000259

[2023] NZHC 2133

BETWEEN

MISCHAN ZAMANI

Appellant

AND

THE KING

Respondent

Hearing:	7 August 2023
Appearances:	O F Kazmierow for Appellant H F Brown for Respondent
Judgment:	10 August 2023

JUDGMENT OF VAN BOHEMEN J

This judgment was delivered by me on 10 August 2023 at 2:38 pm.

Registrar/Deputy Registrar

……………………………..

Counsel/Solicitors:

T M Cooper KC / O F Kazmierow, Auckland Crown Solicitor, Auckland

ZAMANI v R [2023] NZHC 2133 [10 August 2023]

[1]On 5 May 2023, Mischan Zamani was sentenced by Judge C M Ryan to

11 months of home detention and 11 months of post-detention conditions after pleading guilty to two charges of arson and one charge of intimidation/threatening behaviour.1 The post-detention conditions required Mr Zamani, following completion of his sentence of home detention:

(a)to attend assessments for counselling and other treatments and programmes as directed by his probation officer, and to complete those programmes to the probation officer’s satisfaction;

(b)not to associate with the victims of his offending without the written permission of his probation officer; and

(c)to attend and complete an anger management programme if considered suitable and necessary by, and to the satisfaction of, his probation officer.

[2]                 Mr Zamani appeals his sentence but only with respect to the post-detention conditions. He says that the conditions are disproportionately restrictive in light of his risks of offending and immigration status and that the Court should not have been satisfied that the special post-detention conditions were necessary. The Crown opposes the appeal.

[3]                 Mr Zamani was born in Germany in 1992 of Iranian parents. He moved to Australia in 2012 to pursue a dream of becoming an Olympic swimmer. He moved to New Zealand in January 2020 to set up a fast food franchise but that did not eventuate for reasons associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The offending

[4]                 Mr Zamani’s then partner was involved in an employment dispute with her employers, the first and second victims, over various matters, including the use of a Volkswagen motor vehicle owned by those victims. On 13 October 2020, Mr Zamani

1      R v Zamani [2023] NZDC 12345.

accompanied his partner to a meeting  with  the  first  and  second  victims, where Mr Zamani became angry and aggressive towards the victims. On 22 and 23 October 2020, Mr Zamani met with Washington Sooa and Braydan Previtera and engaged them to damage or destroy the Volkswagen and the victim’s second vehicle, a Mercedes Benz. Mr Zamani told Mr Sooa and Mr Previtera where the victims lived and worked and what he wanted done to the vehicles.2

[5]The offending took place over a period of four days.

[6]                 At around 11:13 pm on 23 October 2020, Mr Sooa and Mr Previtera drove to the first and second victims’ home in Hillsborough, where the third victim’s Mitsubishi Outlander vehicle was parked in the driveway. The third victim was a flatmate of the first and second…