EDITORIAL: Good lesson from a bad example

Paul Taggart
It would be hard to imagine a better example of why our court system is inadequate than the case of Nathan Bentley.
The 22-year-old Upper Hutt man had an unhealthy disregard for the laws of the land and managed to run up $100,000 in fines for repeated driving offences.
But while most people who find themselves with a speeding or parking ticket dutifully pay by the due date, Bentley had no such inclination.
In June of this year his persistent refusal to pay his fines resulted in Chief District Court Judge David Carruthers suspending payment of the vast bulk of the fines for five years, with no interest accruing, and giving the offender five years to pay off just $7800 at $30 a week, despite the fact that he was working and earning $350 a week.
Despite such generosity toward a person with 100 convictions and who has also been given a total of $1990 taxpayers' cash for legal aid in recent years, Bentley still didn't bother complying with the court's rulings. So this week he was finally taken out of circulation, being sentenced to eight weeks behind bars. But even then there was a silver lining for the recidivist, as he will be released early if he starts to pay the fines.
So the lesson for offenders is that there are great rewards to be gained by being truculent and resisting any sentence that may be imposed. In Bentley's case it resulted in his sentence of community service being slashed, his fines being greatly reduced, with generous time to pay, with the real likelihood of $92,000 of the fines being "reconsidered" which, more than likely, will mean remitted.
One of the problems is that the law appears not to be clear on what can be done with offenders such as Bentley. Though the Summary Proceedings Act says jail is not an option for fine default, the Sentencing Act 2002 gives judges discretion in "exceptional circumstances" such as if a defendant is unwilling to comply with an alternative sentence.
It would be an over-reaction to regularly send minor fine defaulters to prison, but allowing fines to mount to $100,000, then letting the offender off $92,000 of what he owes, makes the law, and those administering it, look foolish.
Prison needs to be available as a deterrent for offenders who repeatedly thumb their noses at the law, and needs to be imposed long before 100 convictions have been recorded.