KEY POINTS:
Seven people have walked free on methamphetamine charges following a case that dragged on for five years.
This week - after four trials - three of the original 12 accused in the police Operation Robot were finally sentenced.
Justice Raynor Asher said that the delays, while extraordinary, were the fault of neither the prosecution nor the defence.
One defendant pleaded guilty at an earlier stage and one was discharged.
Lawyers for the rest applied for a stay of proceedings on the basis that the delays in getting the case to completion had taken too long.
In August, Justice Asher granted a stay for seven of the accused, who faced charges of conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine, but ordered that the three main players should face trial.
Christopher Williams and Dale Arthur Williams were subsequently found guilty by a jury in the High Court at Auckland of conspiracy to manufacture and manufacturing methamphetamine.
This week Justice Asher sentenced them to four years nine months and five years two months respectively.
Their brother Shane Edward Williams, who was found guilty of conspiring to manufacture methamphetamine, was sentenced to four years two months.
Those sentences took into account an 18-month discount for the delays they endured.
In his earlier ruling Justice Asher referred to the "unfortunate" history of the case.
Arrests were made in November 2002 following an extensive bugging operation and search by police of various properties around Auckland. There was several months' delay while the police transcribed the intercepted conversations for disclosure to the defence.
Following depositions, the case was sent to the High Court for trial in February 2004.
At the first trial in September that year extensive challenges by lawyers meant there were not enough jurors for the trial to proceed. A second trial started in April 2005. But that too was aborted after six weeks when two of the jurors spoke to one of the accused on a train.
A third trial was set down for August that year, but after two weeks the defence launched a challenge to the legality of the police searches.
Justice Paul Heath ruled that the search warrants were unlawful, but the Crown then appealed against his ruling to the Court of Appeal and were largely successful.
Almost another year passed in trying to find dates that suited all parties.
"Overall the five-year period can be described as being an inherent systemic delay. It arose from an unfortunate combination of circumstances. It may be that more urgency could have been shown as time marched on," Justice Asher observed.
He said that living with the charges for so long was a "blight" on the enjoyment of life and constituted a breach of the Bill of Rights of the accused.
Like the others, the Williams brothers had been adversely affected, but Justice Asher said that did not outweigh the serious charges they faced.
Stays were granted to Brian Sydney McLaughlin, Julie Karen Niblett, Scott James Corless, John Malcolm Te Moni, Joseph Abraham Anae, John Ivan Simeti and Kura Tiranga Williams.
