Robber has chance in Supreme Court to claim back $5000 awarded to his victim

Joshua Van Silfhout took cash and cigarettes from a Mobil service station in 2010. Photo / NZME

An armed robber has gone to the country’s highest court, trying to hang on to $5000 awarded to his victim.

Joshua Pera Van Silfhout was jailed for four years and three months for robbing a Mobil service station in July 2010.

He entered the service station armed with a weapon and threatened the sole attendant before making off with money and cigarettes.

Ten years later the Department of Corrections agreed to pay Van Silfhout $12,000 after it breached his privacy.

Under the Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Act 2005, the money was paid into a trust account and advertised, so that any victim of his offending could make a claim against it.

The service station attendant made a claim and was awarded $5000, according to court documents.

But Van Silfhout tried to get the money back, telling the High Court the victim had been too late in claiming the money.

The legislation says any claim on prisoners’ money has to be made within six years.

Van Silfhout lost his case in the High Court and the Court of Appeal and has now been given leave to take the matter to the Supreme Court.

The question at issue is whether that time period to claim the money can be extended by the time the offender spends in prison, particularly the 15 months Van Silfhout spent in custody on remand.

Neither the High Court nor Court of Appeal judgments gave the location of the service station.

Van Silfhout was first remanded in custody in 2013. He was released from prison in 2016 but breached parole, was recalled and was eventually freed when his sentence ended in 2017.

The Prisoners’ and Victims’ Claims Act was passed to allow victims of crime to make claims against any money awarded to offenders for wrongs that occur in the Corrections or criminal justice system.

The claims are decided by a Victims’ Special Claims Tribunal but can be appealed in the courts.