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A man sentenced to intensive supervision managed to slip out of New Zealand last month under the nose of officials, the Herald can reveal.
He flew across the ditch on September 15 without leave from his probation officer after a border alert was inadvertently not applied to his name.
His escape from the country - and from monitoring by Corrections - came only a day after a woman on the same sentence of intensive supervision, but unrelated charges, slipped out of the country after her travel request was declined.
Corrections National Commissioner Leigh Marsh described the two incidents in as many days as “unacceptable”.
Marsh said he had asked for work to begin immediately to improve the department’s processes.
The man who fled New Zealand was serving a sentence of one year and three months’ intensive supervision on a charge of assaulting a person in a family relationship.
He was sentenced earlier this year in the Waitākere District Court, the Herald understands.
The man had submitted a request to travel to his probation officer and the request was declined.
“A border alert should have been manually requested following the declined travel request, but this did not occur due to staff error,” Marsh said in a statement.
It was a Corrections staffer at fault, the department later confirmed.
The day before, a woman on an active intensive supervision sentence left New Zealand.
There is no evidence of a link between the woman or man besides their sentence and the fact they fled the country despite the conditions of their sentence.
The woman had received one year of intensive supervision on charges of drunk and careless driving, and driving contrary to a zero alcohol licence.
The woman had submitted a travel request to her probation officer but it was declined, Marsh said.
“Following this, her probation officer manually requested a border alert; however, she had gone through Customs prior to the alert being activated.”
Two people in separate incidents waved goodbye to New Zealand while still on a Corrections-administered sentence.
Marsh said border alerts were automatically loaded for people on parole, home detention, extended supervision orders, returning offender orders (some 501 deportees) and those released on conditions.
They are not automatically applied to people on intensive supervision.
“However, these two incidents are unacceptable and I have asked for work to commence immediately to improve our processes and ensure people subject to intensive supervision are not able to leave New Zealand without permission.”
People on an intensive supervision sentence can be electronically monitored, but it is not a standard condition.
Neither the man nor the woman were subject to electronic monitoring, Marsh said.
Intensive supervision is a community-based sentence requiring offenders to report to a probation officer at least once a week for the first three months of a sentence, and once a month for the remainder.
It is a lesser sentence than home detention.
Intensive supervision requires offenders not to move home or leave New Zealand without permission from a probation officer.
The offender can also be required to undertake rehabilitation or reintegration programs and prohibited from associating with certain people.
