KEY POINTS:
The teenager whose dangerous driving in a stolen Mercedes killed two people in October is too young to go to prison.
The 16-year-old, who is also too young for his name to be published, admitted two charges of dangerous driving causing death, two charges of dangerous driving causing injury and one charge of being an unlicensed driver.
The charges followed a horrendous crash near Dome Valley, north of Auckland, on October 3 when the teenager, then 15, pulled out to pass slow traffic without visibility of oncoming traffic.
He collided head on with a Toyota Rav 4, ripping it apart and seriously injuring the driver Karen McGregor-Dawson.
Two of the passengers in the Mercedes were killed - Hemi Paul Pomana Marcus Noble, 17, of Kaitaia, and Frederick Te Aparua Murphy, 34, of Kerikeri - and a third passenger, John Bennet-Yates, was seriously injured.
Because he was not charged with manslaughter, which is a purely indictable offence, he cannot be sent to prison because of his age.
Crown solicitors refused to say yesterday why they had advised police to charge him with driving offences causing death rather than the more serious charge of manslaughter.
Yesterday at North Shore Youth Court he was remanded in custody until next month when a decision will be made on the court where he will be sentenced.
If he appears in the District Court he could be sentenced to community work and supervision, but if he appears in the Youth Court he could be sentenced to supervision and sent to a youth residential centre. If he was an adult and facing the same driving charges, the maximum sentence would be a fine of $20,000 or five years in prison or both.
He is also facing 12 charges of unlawfully taking motor vehicles, interfering with cars, theft and burglary.
He is due to appear at a family group conference tomorrow.
- NZPA
