New Zealand Parole Board -

Parole Hearing

Under section 21(1) of the Parole Act 2002

Shay Robert RICHARDS

Hearing: 8 March 2018

at Otago Corrections Facility

Members of the Board:

• Judge N MacLean (Panel Convenor)
• Mr S Perry
• Mr C King

DECISION OF THE BOARD

1. Mr Richards appears before the Board for the first time at age 21.  He is serving a term of three years three months’ imprisonment with a sentence commencement date of 3 February 2017.  He became eligible for parole consideration earlier this month on 5 March and has a sentence release date of 2 May 2020.
2. The offending was serious and had serious consequences.  Basically Mr Richards became involved in a stupid theft of petrol and consequent fleeing from the petrol station with reckless driving, including driving at speed down a one way system, leading to death of one of the passengers of the crash which ensued and injury to others.  The sentencing Judge described the offending as a “prolonged persistent and deliberate course of bad driving”.  Mr Richards accepted that was a fair definition today.
3. He presented well today before the Board, albeit somewhat nervous.  This is his first time in prison.  He spoke highly of his impressions of the Dependency Treatment Programme (DTP) course he commenced in December last year and will be progressing to phase 2 with a tentative completion date in June this year.  That could be followed by a Medium Intensity Rehabilitation Programme (MIRP) which he seems motivated to do.
4. He has the support of [withheld], and hopes in due course to be released to [withheld].  He described to the report writer that he has been “haunted by the death of the victim”.  He is assessed at medium risk of re‑offending but with a high risk of harm, as evidenced by the consequences of his serious offending.
5. He outlined his tentative plans for the future with the assistance of [withheld], possibly moving into engineering, going into business himself and to that end has done a joinery course and obtained a forklift licence within prison.  The Board noted that he should take the opportunity while he is in prison to acquire as many skills as he can to assist him in due course.
6. However, it is clear at this stage that there is considerable work to be done with the tentative rehabilitative programme already referred to and there would be an undue risk if released now.  The Board will see him again during April 2019 before the end of that month.