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The Justice Ministry has admitted mistakenly sending a Lower Hutt man's criminal profile to a Christchurch woman.
The 21-year-old woman, who declined to be named, said she was horrified when she found the profile in her post.
The four-page document had been sealed in an envelope with the woman's own personal file.
She had requested a copy of her conviction on a drink-drive charge that was required when applying for jobs.
"I would just like to let people know it's possible for the ministry to make mistakes," she told The Press.
"I would feel completely distraught. I can read what this guy has been up to, when he's been in court, when he was sentenced, what happened to him and everything."
The document, detailing the man's offending from 2003 to 2006, including assault on a female, drink-driving charges and receiving stolen property, was meant to be sent to Positive Career Solutions in Lower Hutt .
Positive Career Solutions spokeswoman Rebecca Francois said it was first time she heard of such a mistake being made.
The man whose information was wrongly sent was no longer in the company's system and his phone number was not in service, so it could not contact him to tell him of the error, Ms Francois said.
Justice Ministry general manager of finance and support services Phillip Maitland said more than 1000 requests for copies of an individual's record of criminal convictions were processed each day.
"The records are produced, then collated and placed in envelopes manually. It would appear in this instance two records were inadvertently placed in one envelope," he said.
The ministry had asked the woman to return the record, Mr Maitland said.
- NZPA
