Offender put in motel after eviction from Housing New Zealand home-detention address and new violence charges

A man serving a home detention sentenced is being put up in a motel after he was evicted from his approved address. He is also facing new charges. Photo / File

A recidivist offender sentenced to home detention was booted out of his approved address - a Housing New Zealand property - and is facing new violence charges, but remains in the community in a motel funded by the taxpayer.

A source close to the man said the move was "disgusting" and he should be behind bars rather than being kept in comfort by the community that had been wronged by his crimes.

The man was recently sentenced to home detention after admitting a raft of charges.

Since then he has been charged with three new counts of assaulting a woman with intent to injure.

For legal reasons, the Herald cannot name the man at this stage.

He is well known to police and has been sentenced to prison on multiple occasions - mainly for serious and dangerous driving offences.

He has also served time for attacking a woman.

At his most recent sentencing he was ordered to serve his time at an address approved by the court.

The address was a Housing New Zealand property where an associate of the man lived.

It is understood that associate has since left the property and as a result, the man was evicted by HNZ.

HNZ confirmed it asked the man to leave the properly but refused to answer any questions about the matter, deferring to Corrections.

In the past the man has been ordered by the Tenancy Tribunal to pay almost $2000 for damage to a HNZ property and removal of rubbish he left in his wake.

Corrections confirmed that since he left the approved address the man had been provided with "emergency accommodation".

A source close to the man said that accommodation was at a motel in the town where he lives - at a cost of about $100 per night.

Corrections also refused to answer specific questions about the man, including why he had not been returned to custody if his approved accommodation was no longer viable and given he was facing new charges since his sentence was handed down.

A sentence of home detention requires an offender to remain at a "suitable and approved residence at all times and be electronically monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week, unless approval to leave is given by a probation officer".

The sentence is designed to help offenders to maintain family relationships, keep working or actively seek work and attend training or rehabilitative programmes.

In a statement Corrections operations director Matire Kupenga-Wanoa confirmed the man had been provided "up to seven nights' emergency accommodation" while "suitable long-term accommodation is found".

"If suitable long-term accommodation cannot be found, Corrections will advance an application to cancel the offender's sentence and ask the judge to impose a term of imprisonment," she said.

"The charges the defendant is facing will factor in Corrections' assessment of suitability of any proposed address.

"Corrections will not comment on the charges the offender faces as the matter is currently before the courts."

Kupenga-Wanoa said Corrections' primary concern when assessing the suitability of an offender to serve a sentence of home detention was public safety.

"This includes determining that any other occupants at the address are suitable and that they consent to having the offender reside there, that the property is not near the residence of any registered victim, that Oranga Tamariki do not identify any risk for children at the address and that police do not have any concerns," she said.

"The property is assessed for its technical suitability for electronic monitoring to be carried out, and we ascertain whether the proposed accommodation is rented and what the length of the lease is.

"If the property is a rental property, we advise the offender that they must abide by the conditions of their tenancy agreement.

"It is the responsibility of the tenant who holds the lease to inform the property owner who the occupants will be.

"It is the responsibility of the tenant to obtain permission from Housing New Zealand for an offender to reside at the address."

The source said she was "appalled" that the man was not remanded back into custody as soon as he was charged with the new alleged offending.

She was even more horrified when she learned he had been kicked out of his address and was staying at the motel.

"He had no right to be living in the HNZ house, and now he's put up in a motel - I just find that completely inexcusable," she said.

The source, who has lived with the man in the past, said he was a "menace" and she was terrified he would keep offending and hurt more people.

"If he goes out and kills someone, I am going to feel extremely guilty," she said.

"I need to try every possible way to stop it."

She approached the Herald because she wanted the public to know about the case.

"This is not a vendetta, it's not revenge - I am just totally disgusted, I am horrified," she said.

"The taxpayer dollar is being wasted, he should be sitting in a jail cell but we're paying to have him sitting in a motel and that's not acceptable."