But High Court Justice Karen Grau said Judge Northwood was right, and there was “no error” in his sentencing calculations.
She declined Green’s appeal against sentence.
“Mr Green’s criminal history consists of over 100 previous convictions,” Justice Grau said.
“He has continuously offended for two decades, including a significant number of burglaries,” she said.
She noted that one of Green’s victims had indicated they were willing to attend a restorative justice meeting, where offenders and victims get the chance to talk and put things right.
Green, however, denied committing that offence.
“That is completely at odds with a letter of remorse provided on the day of sentencing,” Justice Grau said.
“The [sentencing] judge cannot be criticised for being sceptical about Mr Green’s claims he was genuinely remorseful.”
Green was serving home detention for an earlier burglary when his latest run of offending began in 2022.
He breached home detention twice. The second time, he disappeared and could not be found.
On Christmas Eve 2022, he broke into a locked and empty house and stole about $8000 worth of property.
He committed a second burglary sometime between Christmas Day and January 23, 2023, when he pried open the lounge window of another house, went inside and searched it.
This time, he took items valued at $1450.
On January 25, 2023, Green was driving in Whanganui when a police car following him into a car park activated its lights and sirens.
Green’s way out of the car park was blocked, so he accelerated hard, clipped a parked car, and pushed between kerb and another car.
After scraping along the side of the second car, he drove up on to a low garden wall with his car briefly on two wheels before making it on to the roadway and driving off at speed.
When he was arrested later, he had 0.06 grams of methamphetamine in a pill container in his pocket.
At sentencing, Judge Northwood adopted a starting point of 30 months in prison for the two burglaries, breaching home detention, the driving charges and possessing methamphetamine.
A pre-sentence report said burglary “became habitual” for Green when he was living on the street.
Judge Northwood referred to the letter of remorse that Green had provided, acknowledging that it was well-written and appeared to be sincere.
He observed, however, that Green had been in trouble on and off for many years.
Judge Northwood said it was time for Green to “stop writing letters” and take action. He declined to reduce the sentence for Green’s expression of remorse.
In turning down the appeal against his sentence, Justice Grau said a pre-sentence report assessed Green as being at “high risk” of reoffending.
It also said he had convictions for violence and firearms offences, which gave him a high risk of causing harm to others.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.
