Career crim stays in jail

Judge Faire has reserved his decision of declining Simon Kerr parole.

A career criminal has failed to persuade the High Court to order a judicial review into the Parole Board's refusal to release him on conditions.

Simon Kerr, 43, was denied parole in December as the board felt there was much work for him to do in terms of rehabilitation and reintegration programmes before he qualified for release.

He went to the High Court and argued the board failed to consider reports into two rehabilitative measures he'd taken in prison and that he was a changed man.

Kerr, with 145 previous convictions, is serving six-and-a-half years in jail on multiple counts of burglary of commercial premises, and theft from a Dargaville ATM machine in September 2009 that netted more than $112,000 in cash.

In his decision, Justice John Faire said the weight the board gave to relevant information was its prerogative.

The board, the judge said, had observed the principles of natural justice.

Justice Faire said Kerr's criminal history and that of avoiding arrest, poor compliance with previous parole conditions and his sentence end-date were all appropriate factors which the board took into account.