Zhang v R - [2010] NZCA 481

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF NEW ZEALAND
CA201/2010
[2010] NZCA 481
BETWEENXIAONAN ZHANG

Appellant

ANDTHE QUEEN

Respondent

Hearing:12 October 2010

Court:Chambers, Ronald Young and Keane JJ
Counsel:R M Mansfield for Appellant

J M Jelas for Respondent

Judgment:22 October 2010 at 10 am

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

The appeal is dismissed.
REASONS OF THE COURT
(Given by Chambers J)
Laundering money from drug dealing
[1]        Xiaonan Zhang, the appellant, was born in 1983 in China. She came to New Zealand in about 2000 to further her education. In about 2006, she met Jianying Ma. They became romantically involved. This was unfortunate as Mr Ma was a major drug dealer in New Zealand. He enticed Ms Zhang into his nefarious web: she became the washerwoman of the profits from his drug deals. Over an 18 month period, she laundered almost $700,000 through her bank account and an associated credit card account.
[2]        Not only Mr Ma benefited from these profits; she did too. $50,000 was used to buy a Volkswagen Touareg, which, while registered in Mr Ma’s name, was used by Ms Zhang and found in her possession when the police swooped. In addition, she got to live in a house in Glenfield, Auckland, bought from drug money she had laundered.[1] Using drug money, she undertook significant renovations of the property. When police executed search warrants, they found in her bedroom a large quantity of designer clothes and accessories. Her credit card statements evidenced purchases from such swanky shops as Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton and Ermenegildo Zegna. Indeed, so secure did she become financially, as a result of assisting her boyfriend, that she was able to give up her employment as an accounts assistant in March 2008. Thereafter she did not need to work.
[1]     The property was acquired using a bank loan, but the drug money deposit was, of course, the lever for that loan
[3]        Ms Zhang faced four money laundering charges, one representative spanning a period from 2006 to 2008, under s 243 of the Crimes Act 1961. A jury found her guilty on all of them. Stevens J, the trial Judge, subsequently sentenced Ms Zhang to a total sentence of four years six months’ imprisonment.[2]
[2]     R v Zhang HC Auckland CRI-2008-004-015194, 16 March 2010 (sentencing notes).
[4]        Ms Zhang now appeals against that sentence on the basis that it was manifestly excessive. She originally appealed as well against her conviction, but subsequently she abandoned that part of the appeal.
Issues on the appeal
[5]        There are two issues on this appeal. The first was the Judge’s starting point of five and a half years’ imprisonment. Mr Mansfield, who appeared for Ms Zhang at trial and again before us, submitted the starting point should have been no higher than three and a half years to four and a half years.
[6]        Further, or in the alternative, Mr Mansfield submitted the Judge had allowed too little discount for personal mitigating factors.
Was the starting point too high?
[7]…

Grounds of appeal

[14] The appellant contends that the primary judge erred in finding that the respondent had discharged the onus of establishing the matters required under the relevant provision.

[15] It was submitted that his Honour failed to give adequate weight to the evidence of the second witness, and that the findings of fact were not reasonably open on the material before the Court.

[16] The respondent, for its part, submits that no error is disclosed, and that the conclusions reached were well within the range of outcomes available to the primary judge.

Consideration

[17] It is convenient to deal first with the question of construction, as the resolution of that issue informs the remaining grounds advanced by the appellant.

[18] For the reasons that follow, we are of the view that the appeal should be allowed in part and the matter remitted for further determination.

Continue reading Zhang v R

Details

AGLC: Zhang v R [2010] NZCA 481
Case: [2010] NZCA 481
Decision Date: 22 October 2010

CaseChat Overview and Summary

Xiaonan Zhang appeals against her sentence of four years six months' imprisonment for money laundering. She was convicted of laundering almost $700,000 for her boyfriend, a drug dealer, over an 18-month period. She used the money to buy a car and a house, and to fund a lavish lifestyle. The appeal concerns the starting point for her sentence and the discount applied for mitigating factors. The appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal. The court found the starting point of five and a half years' imprisonment to be appropriate, given the seriousness of the offending and the personal benefit derived by Zhang. The court also found that the 18% discount applied for mitigating factors was generous and appropriate. The appeal was dismissed, and the original sentence upheld.

Orders