Abhinav Singh Dutt was sentenced in the High Court at Wellington this afternoon for his part in Operation Trump Card. Photo / Catherine Hutton
The lawyer for a man sentenced for his role in a large-scale receiving operation told a court his client was “a bit of a fool and there is no cure for foolishness”.
Abhinav Singh Dutt was today sentenced in the High Court at Wellington after earlier admitting seven charges of receiving stolen property.
Dutt’s offending was detected during a police operation in 2022, known as Operation Trump Card.
It targeted a large-scale receiving operation, run by Chin Kok Soon, who last month was jailed for his leading role in the enterprise, which netted nearly $3 million in stolen property.
Soon had connections throughout Wellington. He would take stolen goods people offered to him as well as providing lists of items he wanted stolen. These included power tools, bicycles, building materials and electronics.
At today’s sentencing Justice Karen Grau noted that at the core of Soon’s network was people like Dutt, who were tenants at the properties Soon owned.
Dutt lived at Soon’s Newlands house and also did some electrical work for him.
The judge said Dutt sold about $15,000 of stolen property on Facebook and Trade Me on behalf of Soon.
Dutt was also responsible for storing stolen property which police found stashed in storage units, garages and houses. Police saw him moving stolen property.
When Dutt was arrested he was driving a car that contained around $10,000 of stolen property.
Justice Grau said Dutt’s offending took place over a four-and-a-half-month period during 2022.
The judge told Dutt his level of culpability in the enterprise was mid-range, but Dutt didn’t benefit from the stolen property and was acting on instructions from Soon.
Nevertheless, he was an important assistant to Soon, she said.
The Crown acknowledged a non-custodial was appropriate, submitting community detention and community work would be the appropriate sentence.
Dutt’s lawyer Blake Dawson said while community detention was appropriate, community work would interfere with his client’s work as an electrician.
He said his client had a degree of foolishness or naivety and outside of this offending a number of character references submitted to the court showed he had a solid reputation with friends, colleagues and his landlord.
“The difficulty I have is reconciling that picture of the man painted by those references and the charges faced,” he said.
He said the offending was out of character and he couldn’t understand why Dutt had helped Soon when there was no material benefit for him. Admitting this might be unkind, he told the court,
“Mr Dutt is a bit of a fool, and I think he would accept that. There’s no cure for foolishness, but what does help is a short, sharp shock in terms of facing consequences,” he said.
Dawson said as a result of this offending his client stood to lose everything he’d worked for in the past seven years, including his partner, his company directorship and possibly his registration as an electrician.
Dawson said his client was determined to make amends and had engaged in the restorative justice process.
He had met with one victim and paid $400 as well as writing apology letters to two other victims, who had filed victim impact statements.
His remorse was genuine, he said.
Justice Grau referred to the restorative justice report, describing it as positive and significant.
“It’s no easy thing for an offender to face the victim directly and hear about the impact that your offending has had on them.”
She said the outcome of the meeting and the apology letters he’d written suggested Dutt’s remorse was genuine.
Justice Grau also referred to a large number of character references and agreed the offending seemed to be out of character.
“This offending, although it went on for a few months, it’s a lapse, a very significant lapse, by a person who’s otherwise shown themselves to be reliable, responsible, hardworking and supportive to friends and people in your community.”
She said Dutt had done what he could to make things right and demonstrated his remorse was genuine.
Justice Grau sentenced Dutt to six months’ community detention and imposed a nightly curfew, also for six months.
She declined to impose a sentence of community work saying it wasn’t warranted.
Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist for 20 years, including at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice.
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