A District Court judge says he is in a "sentencing vacuum" when it comes to an alleged offender involved in a crash in Queenstown in January who promptly returned to his home country.
The 73-year-old Californian man, who has interim name suppression, is charged with dangerous driving causing injury to Sara Duan in Frankton Rd on January 27.
Yesterday, police applied to amend the charge to one of aggravated careless driving causing injury. However, Judge Geoff Rea had questions over what jurisdiction the court had to sentence him at all, because he had left New Zealand before he was charged and summonsed to appear in court.
There were also questions as to whether he could appear by audiovisual link from the United States.
"What everybody’s relying on here is we ... just slide over the top of what the procedural rules are and get this thing sorted out.
"I will not sentence somebody who’s not in the jurisdiction that I have to sentence and expect that he will voluntarily do what he’s told to do."
Lawyer Ben Alexander, acting on instructions from lawyer Michael Walker, said on the morning of the incident the defendant had set off on a road trip to Franz Josef.
Resulting from the Frankton Rd collision, his rental vehicle was written off, which "effectively spelled an end to his driving on New Zealand roads".
Prosecuting sergeant Ian Collin said the man was not arrested at the scene, but indicated to police he would be remaining in New Zealand until January 30.
"What followed, from the prosecution’s perspective, he drove straight to Queenstown Airport, didn’t drop his keys off at Avis, jumped on a flight to Auckland and then [left] the country."
However, his client returned to the hotel he had been staying at before flying to Auckland to "wait out" the rest of their holiday, Mr Alexander said.
"When they arrived ... Auckland was undergoing a significant weather event.
"They remained at Auckland Airport for 48 hours and were offered a flight out of New Zealand earlier than anticipated.
"They weren’t particularly keen on staying in Auckland given the weather events.
"This wasn’t a matter of them fleeing ... New Zealand."
Judge Rea said there were three ways a defendant could be brought before the court — either they were arrested and placed on police bail, arrested and held in custody, or issued with a summons, and none of those things had happened before the man left New Zealand.
Despite the defendant contacting Mr Alexander’s firm and showing a willingness to be involved in the court process, Judge Rea said he could not enforce any sentence handed down, unless the defendant returned to New Zealand.
The matter, which will include arguments for interim name suppression to be continued, has been adjourned until Thursday morning.
