Northland judge erred in discharging arsonist without conviction

This fire started by Ryan Moffat ignited vegetation on a nearby cliff and swept up the side of a historic pa at Rangihoua Heritage Park. Photo / Supplied

Ryan Andrew Moffat secured a discharge without conviction for starting a fire in a historic Bay of Islands reserve with a homemade bomb but that decision was overturned upon appeal in the High Court.

That court ordered the 27-year-old be re-sentenced in the District Court, saying the sentencing judge erred in concluding from the available evidence his offending was not relatively serious.

Moffat was re-sentenced in Kaikohe District Court to 200 hours' community work and ordered to pay Fire and Emergency NZ $15,000 reparations to cover the cost of putting the fire out.

The firefighting cost was $24,000.

Moffat was charged with arson, police claiming that he buried the device, and containers of petrol, on a beach on the Purerua Peninsula, then gone up a hill with two friends to watch as he detonated the bomb using a firing box in January 2019.

The resulting fire ignited vegetation on a nearby cliff and swept up the side of a historic pa at Rangihoua Heritage Park, the site of New Zealand's first European settlement.

About 30 firefighters with seven fire appliances responded to the blaze, a helicopter finishing the job the next morning.

Moffat told court he did not believe he had been risking starting a fire, so he could not be criminally liable for arson. If he had thought there was a risk, he would have buried the bomb 50m further down the beach.

He said he added the petrol to get a bigger bang, and because it was cheaper than solid explosives, not because he wanted to start a fire.

Police argued Moffat's friends had alerted him to the bomb's proximity to cliffside vegetation, and to get to the beach he had driven or walked past at least half a dozen 'No Fire' signs.

Police appealed the District Court's decision to discharge him without conviction on the grounds the sentencing judge erred in his assessment of the gravity of the offending by overlooking relevant considerations.

The Judge overlooked that Moffat was put on notice by his associates that the hole he dug and into which he put the explosive device was too close to vegetation, that there was a total fire ban in place at the relevant time, and that he was familiar with and held pyrotechnic certification and experience, police argued.

Further, police said the sentencing judge erred in his assessment of the consequences of a conviction such as on Moffat's job, his family business, ability to travel overseas and obtain mortgages, that were unsupported by available evidence.

"Mr Moffat's actions were more than naïve as the Judge suggested. They were also much more than "a stupid thing to do", again as the Judge suggested," Justice Edwin Wylie noted in his judgment.