Bill Armitt wants victims of crime to receive information about their offenders.
Bill Armitt wants victims of crime to receive information about their offenders.
A whangarei businessman ripped off by a trusted employee has called for victims of crimes to be automatically registered by the Ministry of Justice and to be informed about a convicted offender's release from prison, unless they opt out.
Bill Armitt, a director of Hot Printz Screenprinting, made the callafter a man he employed who stole nearly $129,000 was recently released by the Parole Board with conditions after serving one year of his three-year term.
Mr Armitt said he was in the dark as to when the man was released and his release conditions, although he acknowledged prison authorities and the Ministry of Justice were not obliged to inform him of those details because he did not register as a victim. In November 2014, Shane Hiroa was jailed for three years by the Whangarei District Court after he pleaded guilty to four charges of theft by a person in a special relationship.
He stole by falsifying invoices and credit notes over four years while he encouraged customers to either pay him in cash or deposit money into bank accounts not related to the company. Mr Armitt said he did not register as a victim because he did not know he had to.
"I reckon victims need to be auto registered unless they ask not to. You just assume as victims, you'll find out everything from police and Victim Support but you don't unless you register as a victim. I wanted to be at his (Hiroa's) parole hearing but I didn't know about it. What happened to me was already bad enough and now I have to register for the authorities to inform me of his release conditions," he said.
According to the board's decision, Hiroa was released on parole on November 19 this year because he was not deemed to be an undue risk to the community.
One of the conditions of his release was he won't undertake any employment that involves managing the finances of a company or funds of any other people.
The special conditions will last until his sentence expiry date of November 10, 2017. Hiroa was also ordered not to contact his victim, to undertake budgeting advice, and to notify his Probation Officer before starting, terminating or changing his position or place of employment.
The Ministry of Justice said the Victim Notification Register was an opt-in system and allowed victims of serious offences to apply to police to be registered and to receive information about an offender.
