Car thefts are usually not considered thefts at all, according to the Crimes Act.
Photo / Supplied
Car thefts are usually not considered thefts at all, according to the Crimes Act.
Photo / Supplied
No car thefts have been recorded in Northland since June, due to an oddity in the law.
This is because vehicles that are later recovered - which accounts for most that are taken - cannot be classified as theft because the intent to keep it cannot be proven.
Instead, the crime is defined in the Crimes Act as conversion, and in police data as the illegal use of a motor vehicle.
“If a vehicle is later recovered and can be returned to its owner in working order, then we can’t demonstrate an intent to permanently deprive the owner of that vehicle,” a police spokesperson said.
All reports of vehicle theft, police said, were initially coded as conversion rather than theft. This is the same as in other jurisdictions, according to police.
“If further evidence comes to light that a vehicle has actually been stolen – for example, if it is found destroyed, or is on-sold to a third party – then the conversion offence would be reclassified as theft.”
There is a difference when it comes to prosecution.
“They are separate offences in the Crimes Act, which means they have different evidential requirements to be proved at court, and they attract different penalties on conviction,” a police spokeswoman said.
Instances of illegal use of a motor vehicle are a different story, though, with 515 cases recorded over the same period.
There were 15 cases of motor vehicle theft in Northland between October 2019 and September 2022, according to police data.
Over the same period, there were 3710 recorded instances of illegal use of a motor vehicle in the region.
Te Uria o Hau kaumatua Ben Hita's car was stolen from outside his home in Kaiwaka. Photo / Susan Botting
For a crime to be prosecuted as theft, items must be taken “dishonestly and without claim of right, taking any property with intent to deprive any owner permanently of that property or of any interest in that property”.
Although it is a different charge, the maximum penalty for conversion is the same as for theft - seven years’ imprisonment.
Kaiwaka local Ben Hita is one of many car owners whose vehicle was illegally used and soon found abandoned - with damage to the ignition and broken windows.
The Te Uria o Hau kaumatua found out his car had been stolen just over a week ago - after it had already been recovered by police.
He had been away in Pouto overnight when he discovered his car had been stolen from his home in Kaiwaka on November 12.
“We got a phone call early Saturday morning from the Whangārei police saying they had a car that they believed belonged to me. Apparently, it had been pinched from Kaiwaka off my front lawn,” Hita said.
He discovered when he returned to his home on Sunday that his neighbour had disturbed two young men hanging around his house about 2am. Hita believed his vehicle was likely stolen shortly after, although it could have been any time after he left home on Friday afternoon.
He said younger car thieves were often not punished severely, whatever the charge.
Although Hita was “irate” about the theft, he said he was trying to look at it from a different perspective and it may have been young people in a difficult family situation.
“Having worked with a lot of youth, I know some of their attitudes and when I talk to them, some quite unreal answers come out of them.”
In that situation, they might be trying to get attention or have consumed alcohol and not be thinking, Hita said.
