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Jones v Police [1999] DCR 182 (DC)

Case summary provided by LEXISNEXIS NZ

Name: Jones v Police
Reported: [1999] DCR 182
File number: CRN8009033908, 41174; 7009023457 (1987); 1009006188 (1991); 8009022254 (1998)
Date: 12 February 1999
Court: District Court
Location: Christchurch
Judge: Abbott DCJ
Charge: Driving while Disqualified (2)
CYPFA: s283(i)
Key Title: Disqualification from Driving - s283(i); Youth Court procedure

LEXISNEXIS Summary:

Transport - Driving while disqualified - Application for rehearing - Whether disqualification orders made by Children and Young Persons Court or Youth Court were a "conviction" for the purposes of section 30A Transport Act 1962 - Whether Court had jurisdiction to convict and sentence for breach of those orders - Transport Act 1962 - Children and Young Persons Act 1974 - Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989.

The applicant had pleaded guilty to two charges of driving while disqualified. In the course of sentencing the Judge considered that there might be a real issue as to whether at the time of the alleged offences the applicant was validly disqualified. The disqualification orders which had allegedly been breached were indefinite disqualifications. The applicant sought a rehearing in respect of those disqualification orders. The applicant also sought a rehearing as to both conviction and sentence in respect of a separate charge of driving while disqualified, and a rehearing as to conviction in respect of the current two charges.

Held (granting the application for rehearing)

The issue was whether, for the purposes of s 30A(1)(b) of the Transport Act 1962, the defendant had been "convicted" of an offence when he had appeared in the Children and Young Persons Court, admonished, fined $200 and disqualified from holding a driver’s licence for nine months. The scheme of the Children and Young Persons Act 1974 ("CYP Act") had been that a conviction would be entered against a young person only if the power contained in s 36(1)(j) of that Act was exercised, while s 283(o) of the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989 ("CYPTF Act"), which replaced the former Act) was to similar effect (and s 290(2) of the latter Act now provided that the power to convict and transfer to the District Court was a power of last resort). In view of the fact that the CYP Act and the CYPTF Act respectively contained several "deemed conviction" provisions, and in view of the fact that s 293A(4) of the CYPTF Act provided to that effect in respect of the power of the Youth Court to impose an indefinite disqualification under s 30A of the Transport Act, it would have been a simple matter for Parliament to have included an appropriate "deemed conviction" provision in s 30A itself, in particular when s 293A was enacted. However it had not done so. Having regard to those matters as well as other legislation such as the Criminal Justice Act 1985 and the Criminal Investigations (Blood Samples) Act 1995, a disposition of a charge in either the Children and Young Persons Court (under the CYP Act) or the Youth Court (under the CYPTF Act) was not a conviction for the purposes of triggering the District Court’s jurisdiction under s 30A(1)(b) of the Transport Act, unless a conviction was entered pursuant to s 36(j) of the CYP Act or s 283(o) of the CYPTF Act respectively. That was consistent with the rehabilitative rather than punitive objectives of the Youth Court. Accordingly rehearings were granted in relation to conviction and sentence for the applicant’s previous offences.

Application

This was an application for rehearing pursuant to s 75 of the Summary Proceedings Act 1957.