Woman breaches home detention 12 times | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

A Rotorua woman has been jailed for breaching her original home detention sentence 12 times.

Moanata Karaitiana, 23, was sentenced to 12 months' home detention on theft charges by Judge Lindsay Moore in the Rotorua District Court last year.

This year, she breached 12 times by leaving her home, prompting Community Corrections to apply to the court for a review of her original sentence.

Her sentence was due to expire later this month.

This comes as figures released to The Daily Post by the Ministry of Justice reveal one in five offenders sentenced to home detention in Rotorua breaches the sentence.

In 2009, 101 people were sentenced to home detention and 21 re-appeared in court on charges of breaching conditions of their sentence.

At Karaitiana's sentence review, Judge Chris McGuire told her she "deserved to go to jail".

"Regrettably, you did not make the most of that sentence and I have got a sheaf of pages here of occasions when you have just wandered off your property and wandered back later, presumably when it suited you - you just ignored the fact that you were wearing a bracelet and did your own thing," he said.

He told Karaitiana it was "crunch time".

Judge McGuire sentenced Karaitiana to three months' imprisonment.

The figures, released to The Daily Post under the Official Information Act, have prompted a Rotorua victims' rights campaigner to call for a law change resulting in harsher punishments for offenders.

Sensible Sentencing Trust Rotorua spokesperson Maggie Bentley was surprised by the number of people breaching their sentences.

She was especially shocked to find one Rotorua woman was allowed to breach her sentence 12 times before being sent to jail.

"It's just disgusting," she said.

"If it's that fairly widespread it's obvious the Government needs to do something ... it just confirms what I have always thought. Home detention is just another way of them freeing up the prisons. Everyone thinks [offenders] are being punished but they aren't. They are being sentenced to the very homes where they generally have committed the offences. That's not right."

There needed to be a law change to ensure offenders were being punished adequately, Mrs Bentley told The Daily Post.

"Tougher rules would be a start. Do what ever it takes ... home detention is just a soft option," she said.

Rotorua MP Todd McClay didn't believe home-based sentences were a soft option but he was concerned about the amount of breaches in Rotorua.

"One in five does seem a little excessive. I'd like to do some more digging about at a deeper level to see if the breaches are re-offences," he said.

The safety of the public was paramount when considering offenders for home detention, Mr McClay said.

"If there are problems with the system then they need to be addressed," he said.

"If people are fervidly breaching then I agree these people should have their liberty taken away from them."

Only people facing a jail term of two years or less can be considered for home detention.

Those serving home detention wear a waterproof electronic anklet. If they leave the area - usually the perimeter of the property - a security firm monitoring the prisoner is warned once the alarm is triggered and responds.

Those serving their punishments at home in Rotorua included 22 for alcohol-related offences, seven for methamphetamine-related offences, 19 for other drug offences, 35 for violence and 18 for other offences including burglaries and traffic charges.

Of those sentenced to home detention, 71 were men and 30 were women.