Meth-fuelled car-jacker Bronson Hewitt who held knife to woman has jail term slashed on appeal

Bronson Hewitt was found guilty of the August 2015 rampage by a jury at the High Court in Auckland last year.

A meth-fuelled car-jacker who held a knife to an innocent driver and threatened to cut off her fingers before robbing and punching her in the face has successfully argued time off his jail term.

Bronson Rongorangi Richard Hewitt, 30, was found guilty of the August 2015 rampage by a jury in the High Court at Auckland last year.

He was jailed for eight years and six months.

Hewitt later appealed both his conviction and sentence to the Court of Appeal.

Now, in a newly-released judgement, appeal judges have slashed two years off his jail term, concluding that his original sentence was "manifestly excessive in view of the fuller picture now available to the court".

The court heard how on the afternoon of August 4, 2015 Hewitt got out of one car at an intersection in Glenfield and burst into a BMW behind him.

When the female driver asked him what he was doing, he told her to shut up and asked where her money and gold was.

She gave him her handbag, which he emptied on to the floor.

When she tried to use her cellphone, Hewitt grabbed it from her.

He then forced her to continue driving, holding her forcefully by the hair and tilting her head back so that she could not see properly. He also ran a fishing knife up and down her arm while she drove, aggressively demanding that she "drive properly".

Having forced her to drive into a side street he demanded, under threat that he would cut her fingers off, that she give him her rings, which she did. He then punched her in the face with a closed fist, pushed her out of her car, and drove off.

Later the same day, Hewitt entered a garage-sleepout of a Glenfield property.

Wielding a baseball bat, he grabbed a woman around her neck in a headlock and demanded keys to a BMW.

Court of Appeal judges rejected arguments that he was wrongfully convicted.

However, they concluded that after hearing some new information, which is suppressed, that Hewitt's sentence of eight years, three months was "manifestly excessive" and should be replaced with a sentence of six years and three months' imprisonment.