Police v Kaneri [2017] NZDC 7404 (5 April 2017)

Last Updated: 30 August 2017

EDITORIAL NOTE: SOME NAMES AND/OR DETAILS IN THIS JUDGMENT HAVE BEEN ANONYMISED

IN THE DISTRICT COURT AT AUCKLAND

CRI-2016-004-011474 [2017] NZDC 7404

NEW ZEALAND POLICE

Prosecutor

v

ALLAN ANDREW KANERI

_Defendant

Hearing:	5 April 2017
Appearances:	Sergeant S McErlean for the Prosecutor S Leith for the Defendant
Judgment:	5 April 2017

_{NOTES OF JUDGE R J COLLINS ON SENTENCING}

[1] Mr Kaneri, you are for sentence on four charges, one of burglary with an associated assault, possession of methamphetamine and breach of release conditions. Dealing with the facts of the first three matters, at about 11.30 pm on Tuesday

8 November you entered [the victim Restaurant] in Dominion Road in Auckland through the backdoor which is not open to the public. You had no authority to enter the rear of the premise, you climbed a ladder onto an upper floor area, at this time opening a tin and taking $160 in cash.

[2] As you attempted to climb down the ladder to exit, you were confronted by the victim, a worker at [the victim Restaurant] , you punched the victim in the face with a closed fist leaving the victim dazed in your attempt to flee and avoid being caught. However other staff overheard the commotion and they restrained you and

_{detained you and you continued to struggle until the police arrived.}

NEW ZEALAND POLICE v ALLAN ANDREW KANERI [2017] NZDC 7404 [5 April 2017]

[3] Unsurprisingly, when the police arrested you and searched you they found half a gram of methamphetamine in your possession. The victim suffered swelling to his right eyebrow area, an open cut to his right eyebrow that was bleeding and bleeding inside his eye, requiring hospitalisation. Mr Kaneri, one thing that you should be grateful for today is that your counsel has done a very good job on your behalf of negotiating the charges to the point that he has. You could have faced a far, far more serious charge given that wound.

[4] I have read the pre-sentence report. The probation officer astutely observes as follows. “The offending related factors in this instance are Mr Kaneri’s illicit drug use, anger management, violent propensity and his offending supportive attitudes and behaviours. Mr Kaneri last appeared before the Court on similar illicit drug related charges in October 2016 and committed his most recent offences just two weeks after his most recent release from prison while being subject to release conditions. Given his history of non-compliance with community-based sentences and the very short timeframe between offence dates, Mr Kaneri is assessed as being at high risk of re-offending; he is assessed as being a medium risk of harm to others due to his current and previous violence related offending.”

[5] I might be wrong on this Mr Kaneri but it really seems to me as you got out of prison, you needed methamphetamine. Your only way of funding that was to steal and you committed this burglary to fund your methamphetamine habit. You are not alone today in being sentenced, I think you are the third person even in the first hour this morning and it is almost a carbon copy situation. All I can hope is that you can take what help you can get in prison to address that methamphetamine problem.

[6] The burglary in itself, in my view, late at night, office space of a restaurant where there is a risk of confrontation with workers, based on all the cases, has to be somewhere around 18 months and I set it at 18 months. In my view, the violence then is serious and that would warrant an uplift of 12 months. But in any event, even without the violence, if there was no assault charge, a burglary where there was an actual confrontation with an innocent occupant, which saw that innocent occupant assaulted to where they ended up with the injuries that the victim did here, would warrant a starting point on the burglary of two and a half years. An uplift of three

months for the possession of half a gram of methamphetamine is warranted and a further uplift of three months for the breach of release conditions. That takes me to a point of 36 months and on a totality basis I have to ask myself is that too much. In my view, given that this offending occurred while you were subject to release conditions, it is not. The need for denunciation, deterrence and accountability is such that I believe that a global starting point of three years is appropriate.

[7] Given that you were apprehended on the night, your chances of successfully defending these matters were pretty remote but Mr Leith makes the submission that on the burglary charge within two days of appearing in Court you entered a guilty plea and that is clear recognition of your preparedness to be held accountable and be responsible for this. So I have changed my view, having heard from your counsel this morning, as to the discount. I initially was only going to give a six month discount for the plea but will give you the full 25 percent which is a nine month discount for your guilty plea for the burglary.

[8] So on the burglary charge you are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of two years three months. On the assault charge a concurrent term of imprisonment of six months. On the other two charges, three months’ imprisonment. All terms of imprisonment are concurrent; the total is two years three months. Thank you, you can stand down.

R J Collins

District Court Judge