Law puts past serious offenders off road

Stagecoach driver Raymond Totowera whose run-in with the law was more than 20 years ago. Picture / Amos Chapple

He admits to his crime of attempted rape of 20 years ago - he did six months inside for it in the 1980s - but it's the injustice of having to pay for it a second time that's got him upset.

"I'll get Fair Go on to it, or I'll give Winston a go."

Raymond Totowera, who has driven Auckland city buses for nine of the past 10 years, is about to lose the licence that allows him to carry passengers.

That's because of a law that comes into effect on January 16 which forbids people with convictions for serious violent or sexual offences from gaining a licence to carry passengers.

But 60-year-old Mr Totowera, from Huntly, said that apart from the odd speed camera fine, he'd been "clean" for at least 20 years. He was a good member of the community and was totally rehabilitated. It had been at least two decades since his conviction for attempted rape, he said.

"To me it's blimmin unfair. I've paid for what I've done. I've been going to the MPs; there's nothing Nanaia [Mahuta, the Tainui Labour MP] can do. I've written a letter to ... the Minister of Transport."

Mr Totowera did receive a reply. It merely stated that a personal reply would be sent "in due course".

But the deadline is about to run out. "They [employers Stagecoach] have said they would employ me but it's a waste of time."

The new law will prevent any taxi or bus drivers from holding a passenger licence if they have been convicted of serious offences including murder and other violence or sexual crimes.

Some people will have the right of appeal, but not if they hold a criminal record for murder or sexual offences.

About 400 of the 36,000 drivers who hold a passenger licence will be affected by the law. Sensible Sentencing Trust national secretary Wendy Pedler said it was perplexing that the Government could make some laws retrospective and not others.

"We're about repeat offenders, so if someone has a clean record for 10 or 20 years then they shouldn't keep being penalised."

However, she said taxi and bus drivers should not have been allowed to gain a job in the passenger transport industry in the first place if they had a serious conviction.

Transport Safety Minister Harry Duynhoven said he sympathised with cases such as Mr Totowera's.

He said he had received a letter from a man who was convicted for sex with a minor 40 years ago.

The man later married and brought up children with the woman he was convicted of having sex with.

However, his conviction now prevented him from holding his passenger licence.

"I've asked my advisers if there's any way forward on this," Mr Duynhoven said, adding that Parliament had passed the law unanimously.

He believed the act was not intended to net people such as Mr Totowera, although he said the parliamentary select committee had been very clear at the time.

Mr Duynhoven said he had only recently become aware of the situation.

He said politicians had gone against officials' advice and made the law a retrospective one.

The new law will also force taxi drivers in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin to have good knowledge of the entire metropolitan areas in which they operate.