Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
Member of Parliament for Northland

27 FEBRUARY 2017

HOME DETENTION WILL NOT TURN ROBBERS AROUND

The Northland dairy owner bashed with a tyre iron is right to call out our justice system as too soft, says New Zealand First Leader and Northland MP Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“The offender who put Mr Hemant Sakar Lal in hospital for three days should be pulled out of bed at 6am each morning and put to work scrubbing the shop’s floors, walls, and footpath outside - at the very least.

“His getaway driver should be doing the same.

“Instead, as the Hikurangi dairy owner says the sentence was a joke.

“The 18 year-year-old from Kawakawa who struck Mr Lal over the head with a tyre iron got nine months home detention.

“Last week the getaway driver was sentenced to five months home detention. They both pleaded guilty to assault with intent to rob.

“The maximum sentence is 14 years’ jail.

“One of the offender’s lawyers is reported in the Northern Advocate newspaper as saying that Mr Lal needs to understand how the sentencing process works.

“For the benefit of the lawyer, what Mr Lal’s case shows is that there is no common sense in the sentencing process.

“Bash someone up in a violent crime and you get home detention - they must be joking.

“We should care more about dairy owners than the system does about going softly, softly on the offenders.

“Is home detention going to teach either of these two right from wrong?

“The bashing could have easily killed Mr Lal. A tyre iron is not a soft toy so there is no excuse for soft sentencing. These two need to be turned around now,” says Mr Peters.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11808193

ENDS

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