November 21, 2009 8:34am by David Farrar

Go Judge Wade

Manukau District Court Judge Roy Wade will add an extra year to the starting point for prison sentences for criminals who commit aggravated robberies on small business owners.

From Monday, that will mean five years in jail, instead of the four-year guideline set by the Court of Appeal. …

“Anyone who holds up a retail shop in South Auckland, whether it be a dairy, a liquor store or any other kind of retail premises, is going to go to prison for a very long time,” the judge said.

“That will be the case whether they are young or old, and regardless of their personal circumstances. There will rarely be any question of home detention or community detention, and the only issue will be the length of the sentence.

And Judge Wade gets support from an unlikely source:

Experienced defence lawyer Lorraine Smith, who spends much of her time in the Manukau court, supported Judge Wade’s decision.

“When you consider the maximum penalty for aggravated robbery is 14 years, four years is no deterrent whatsoever,” said Mrs Smith.

“People have no fear. If sentences were higher, they might well think twice. But what’s four years when that time is likely to be sitting in the sun with their mates?”

And when you could get parole after one third of your sentence, due to Phil Goff’s 2001 law change (which they retreated from just before the election)

Counties Manukau district commander Superintendent Mike Bush acknowledged the area had the worst statistics for violent crime in the country.

But police were focused on organised crime, drugs, alcohol and youth, and had short- and long-term plans to tackle the problems.

A stronger presence on the street, made possible by the appointment of more officers under the Government’s plan for an extra 300 police, was already making a difference, said Mr Bush.

Last week, he said, the suburb of Otahuhu went 24 hours without a house burglary being reported, which was “unheard of”.

That just may be both the saddest and the funniest thing I have read today. Not that there were no burglaries, but that a burglary free day had never occurred previously.