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High-profile prison escaper and convicted drug trafficker Brian Curtis has been enjoying extended periods of home leave as authorities prepare to release him back into the community - just eight years into a 20-year sentence.
The 73-year-old broke out of the country's only maximum security prison in 1993 after serving two years of an 18-year sentence for importing more than $1 million worth of LSD. Curtis and two others were jailed after a police investigation, dubbed Operation Patch, had uncovered the smuggling of 35,000 tabs of LSD from the Netherlands to New Zealand. Curtis was also found guilty on two charges of importing LSD, and later admitted nine other charges of false pretences and two of attempted false pretences. As well, he has previous convictions for burglary.
Curtis was on the run for eight years until police apprehended him in the Philippines capital of Manila, where he had been living under a new name with a new partner and their now 9-year-old daughter, Loresa.
Known in the criminal world as "The Godfather", Curtis had an extra two-and-a-half years tacked on to his 18-year sentence, meaning his final release date, taking into account the time he spent on the run, would be 2019.
The Parole Board confirmed to the Herald on Sunday that Curtis had been on home leave on several occasions in the past few months as part of efforts to re-integrate him back into the community. To date, the board has denied Curtis parole on three occasion and home detention on two, but at the last hearing in March suggested if Curtis coped well with home leave it would improve his chances of being released from prison.
Curtis goes before the board again next month to be considered for home detention, and is scheduled for a parole hearing in November.
Curtis has said his long-term plan is to see out the rest of his days with his partner and daughter in the Philippines.
The Probation Service has been asked to find out from immigration authorities whether, in fact, Curtis will be allowed to return to the Philippines "as a release on home detention will inevitably mean later release on parole".
Parole conditions vary, but unless there is a fixed parole term generally offenders are paroled for up to two years.
Sources inside Auckland Prison say Curtis has been telling inmates how he will be returning to the Philippines as soon as he is out on parole.
National's law and order spokesman Simon Power has condemned the plan to release Curtis from prison, saying the public would be "shaking their heads in disbelief" that someone with his background was likely to be back on the streets after such a short time.
Power said it was "ridiculous" that offenders were eligible for parole after serving just one third of their sentence.
