Prisoner gets out after spotting judge's blue

An inmate at Wellington's Rimutaka Prison will be released nearly three months early after he spotted a rare legal oversight.

Shaun Peter Harvey will leave prison next week after he applied for a writ of habeas corpus - through which a person can seek relief from unlawful detention - in the High Court at Wellington yesterday.

In Te Awamutu District Court, Harvey, then 27, was jailed for nine months in March for driving while disqualified and breaching community work.

Since a short term is automatically halved, he would have been released in August.

However, in May in the same court he was also sentenced to seven months' jail for 102 unpaid driving fines worth $42,492.

Judge Merelina Burnett's sentencing notes said the sentence would be added to the earlier one, which meant he would be released in late November.

However, Harvey noticed that the judge did not actually specify that in court, which was borne out by an audio recording of the sentencing.

Because it was not specified, the law says the two terms must run concurrently rather than cumulatively, meaning a release date of September 9.

Harvey, although representing himself, essentially did not have to say a word in court, apart from, "Yes your honour," when he was told he would be released next week.

Justice Denis Clifford dismissed the habeas corpus, quashed the warrant that kept Harvey in prison until November, and ordered that he be released on Wednesday.

Crown prosecutor Jane Foster said she had raised the matter of sentencing with the Justice Department and court administrators.

Ms Foster said that it was a relatively rare event.

- NZPA