Rotorua gang member in court after car chase with rivals injures innocent members of the public

Three people in this car were seriously hurt when two cars containing rival gang members, including Daryll Lay (inset), smashed into them.

When a carload of Mongrel Member members chased a carload of rival gangsters at speed on a busy Rotorua road one Saturday night in June, it was never going to end well. Three innocent members of the public were seriously hurt when the gang vehicles ran a red light and smashed into their car. Now the offenders are being brought to justice. Kelly Makiha reports.

Daryll Raymond Lay’s Mongrel Mob patch was stolen so he grabbed five of his gang mates, jumped in a ute and chased the thieves — a carload of rival Black Power members.

Both cars were travelling dangerously at high speed in Te Ngae Rd. At times they were on the wrong side of the road, overtaking, undertaking and driving through red lights.

They drove through road cones, wove through oncoming busy traffic and sped through intersections. It went on for 4km. Then it ended with a bang.

Three people inside this car were seriously hurt when two cars containing rival gang members ploughed through a red light and smashed into them.

Three innocent members of the public were seriously hurt when the Black Power vehicle went through a red light at the Tarawera Rd intersection.

The hit car spun out and Lay’s ute also smashed into it.

Now Lay has been jailed for his involvement.

The court case

Details of the crash on June 3 have been released in court documents to the Rotorua Daily Post.

Lay, 42, pleaded guilty on three charges of reckless driving causing injury, one of reckless driving and one of failing to stop and ascertain injury.

He appeared before Judge Greg Hollister-Jones for sentencing on March 5 and was given a 19-month jail term.

Judge Hollister-Jones said Lay’s Mongrel Mob gang patch had been stolen by a Black Power member.

“This was obviously a very significant gang issue and resulted in a car chase.”

Daryll Lay and five other Mongrel Mob members were in this ute chasing a carload of Black Power members when it crashed into a car at the Te Ngae and Tarawera Rds intersection.

Judge Hollister-Jones laid out the dangerous and reckless driving during sentencing, describing it as “wanton lawlessness”.

When the vehicles crashed, he said Lay and the others in his vehicle immediately took off and didn’t check on the injured people.

The front-seat passenger of the hit car suffered sprains to her neck, back, ribs and bruising to her legs and torso. The driver suffered sprains to his ribs and ankle, bruising to his face and legs, plus an open wound on his right hand. The rear-seat passenger suffered bruising to both legs.

The victims did not provide a statement to the court at sentencing, but reparation of $500 for their insurance excess was sought.

Now Lay has been jailed for his involvement.

More about the offender

Judge Hollister-Jones said Lay started offending as an adult in 1998, and had a previous conviction of reckless driving causing injury in 1999, when he was jailed for nine months.

Since then, most of his offending was for property offences, family violence and charges relating to driving while disqualified.

The judge said Lay had 10 pages of criminal history, with the latest conviction from 2021.

Lay’s lawyer, Bill Nabney, accepted there was a prolonged course of bad and at times aggressive driving.

Daryll Lay appears in the Rotorua District Court for sentencing. Photo / NZME

However, he noted Lay was granted electronic-monitoring bail in July and in November he went to live-in rehabilitation facility the Grace Foundation in Auckland.

A letter from the centre submitted to the judge spoke of Lay’s pleasing progress, describing it as “remarkable and an unwavering dedication to rehabilitation”.

Nabney asked the judge to adjourn sentencing to allow Lay to continue his rehabilitation, but Judge Hollister-Jones declined.

Another letter of support, from a practitioner at SafeMan SafeFamily Aotearoa, said he had been working with Lay since January and described him as having a genuine commitment to change.

What the judge said

Judge Hollister-Jones said the fact it was a gang-motivated chase was an aggravating factor.

“Two cars containing gang members have put multiple members of the Rotorua public at serious risk.”

From a starting point of two years and three months’ jail, he increased the sentence for Lay’s criminal record and gave discounts for his guilty plea, rehabilitation efforts and time spent on electronically monitored bail.

The end sentence was 19 months’ jail.

A pre-sentence report recommended home detention, but Judge Hollister-Jones refused the request.

“I have reached the conclusion that your offending, putting so many members of the Rotorua community at serious risk and injuring three, all because your gang patch was stolen, should result in a sentence of imprisonment.”

He said the court had to mark the offending as “completely unacceptable” and send the strongest message that reckless driving by gang members putting members of the community at risk would land them in jail.

He also ordered Lay be subject to prison release conditions for six months, disqualified him from driving for 18 months and ordered him to pay $500 reparation.

The man driving the Black Power car has pleaded guilty to a raft of charges and will be sentenced in the Rotorua District Court on May 28.

Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.