Appeal over home detention for killer driver in fatal Hamilton crash

Dylan Cossey in the dock at the Hamilton High Court last year where he was sentenced for the fatal crash. Photo / Natalie Akoorie

The Crown is appealing a home detention sentence for a Hamilton man convicted of the manslaughter of four crash victims, saying the sentencing judge "seriously understated the gravity of this offending".

Dylan Cossey was last year sentenced to 12 months of home detention, 400 hours of community work, and disqualified from driving for seven years for his role in the horror crash that killed four friends.

Cossey was in the Court of Appeal in Wellington this morning for a hearing in which the Crown argued his sentence should have been stricter - involving a jail term.

The family of three of the victims were also in court today to listen to the hearing.

Justice Anne Hinton earlier found that although a jury decided Cossey was guilty of illegally racing and causing the deaths of four people, the driver of the other car - Lance Robinson - was more culpable for their deaths.

Maria De Silva, mother of Paul De Silva, 20, pictured above, labelled Dylan Cossey's home detention sentence as a joke. Photo / Supplied

Hamilton woman Hannah Leis Strickett-Craze, 24, Paul De Silva, 20, and Lance Robinson, 28, both of Te Awamutu, and Jason McCormick Ross, 19, of Stratford died in the crash. A van driver who was seriously injured has name suppression.

Crown prosecutor Duncan McWilliam pushed for a jail term, and although Justice Hinton described Cossey's driving decision-making as immature and stupid, she said he did not cause the crash near the intersection of Penniket and Ohaupo Rds.

The judge said Cossey's sentence was not about revenge for the deaths but of denouncing his behaviour and a long prison sentence at his age would unjustifiably derail his future.

Today, Crown lawyer Charlotte Brook said not only had the judge understated how serious the offending was, but that she had also compounded that by "overstating the mitigating features".

"The Crown doesn't say that a judge can't ever take a merciful approach ... the Crown says, rather, that such an approach simply wasn't available on the facts of this case."

She argued despite the fact Robinson was more culpable, Cossey had spurred him on during the race and at times would have been driving faster than Robinson was.

Brook said Cossey was driving in breach of his licence conditions and that he had a history of doing so.

"Mr Cossey has demonstrated a general disregard for the road rules, which are designed to keep the public safe."

The judge "completely overlooked" the totality of the harm caused.

Hamilton woman Hannah Leis Strickett-Craze was one of four killed in the crash in 2016. Photo / Supplied

She said other similar cases that were provided to the court for comparison did not involve so many deaths.

"This is simply the worst case to come before the court - in terms of the outcome - by some margin."

In the other cases, the focus had been on culpability rather than total harm caused, but Brook said this case should be treated differently.

She said the sentencing judge had allowed the greater culpability of Robinson to affect the sentence for Cossey, causing her to adopt a starting point that was too low.

Cossey "simply does not believe the crash was his fault ... he thinks Mr Robinson was solely responsible".

A pre-sentence report writer also assessed his risk of reoffending as high.

Brook said it was hard not to think the judge had "tailored" the sentence to allow a home detention term, because she did not want to see Cossey go to prison.

Jason McCormick Ross' family held this photo of him throughout the week long trial in Hamilton.

She said it would be rare for the Court of Appeal to send someone to prison in such circumstances, but this case was one in which the "sentencing exercise was miscarried so badly", that it should be done.

Taking into account the sentence already served, the minimum sentence the court should impose would be three and a half years in jail, she said.

Defence lawyer Philip Morgan QC said on reading the sentencing notes it was clear the judge focused on all the matters mentioned by Brook.

He said focusing on the four deaths as the main principle, rather than the level of culpability, went against what the English courts have said to do.

He said Robinson was going faster and was the one in the wrong lane.

The judge was also correct in assessing Cossey as being genuinely remorseful, he argued.

The Court of Appeal judges have reserved their decision.