IR-01-24-23966
22 July 2024
Jonathon Gilbert
[FYI request #27081 email]
Tēnā koe Jonathon
Request for information
Thank you for your Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) request dated 30 May 2024. You
wrote:
I am writing to request the statistics and data on stolen vehicles in Lower Hutt.
Specifically I would request an "excel spreadsheet" containing the following
columns from the date range - 01/06/2023 - 31/05/2024.
- Date stolen*
- Date victim reported it as stolen*
- Date of first correspondence from police to the victim after report was made.
- Location stolen from*
- Was CCTV or imagery evidence provided to police or uploaded to VAULT?
(Y/N)*
- Date?
- Vehicle Rego*
- Make/Model & Year
- Vehicle Found (Y/N)*
- Damaged? details?*
- Date recovered?*
- Location recovered?*
- Was the vehicle identified in other areas in lower hutt prior to its final
location?
- Date victim advised of recovery?
- Suspects found?* (Y/N)
- Suspects charged?* (Y/N)
- What was the charge? and punishment?*
- Specifically any reparations? (Y/N)
- Specifically any Suspension of licence? (Y/N)
If this date range is too wide. please shorten this to the most recent 6 month
period ending at the most recent date available.
I have limited this data to specifically Lower Hutt to reduce the required workload
in acquiring this data.
All above requested data is highly valuable and would be greatly appreciated if it
can be provided. However, I understand something may not have been recorded
in a manor that is accessible within reason on request. details marked with a (*)
are of the highest priority.
Police National Headquarters
180 Molesworth Street. PO Box 3017, Wellington 6140, New Zealand.
Telephone: 04 474 9499. Fax: 04 498 7400. www.police.govt.nz
Vault uploads and suspects charged is of key interest into this enquiry.
Information you requested is provided in the attached spreadsheet, except for the
following:
• Vehicle registration is withheld under section 9(2)(a) of the OIA to protect the
privacy of those vehicle’s owners. While the vehicle registration is provided on the
Police website, this is a six-month snapshot of data which it is in the public
interest to release to help identify and locate stolen vehicles. It is provided at
District level and without any other accompanying details listed in your request.
This same over-riding public interest does not apply when considering releasing
this information in response to your request.
• For the same privacy reason, the scene and recovery locations are provided at
Station level1.
• These fields are not provided under section 18(g) of the OIA as the information is
not held. Each case would need to be reviewed manually to create this
information.
-
Was CCTV or imagery evidence provided to police or uploaded to VAULT?
(Y/N)
-
Date?
-
Damaged? details?
-
Was the vehicle identified in other areas in lower hutt prior to its final
location?
-
Date victim advised of recovery?
-
Specifically any Suspension of licence? (Y/N)
• The court outcomes are summarised in this letter separately and this is explained
further below.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this
decision. Information about how to make a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
Based on your question about suspension of licence, I think it may be useful for you to
have some context about how Police data is recorded. One occurrence may have
multiple offences (for example, unlawful takes vehicle, robbery, and assault) and some of
these may be resolved while other are still under investigation. Multiple vehicles could be
taken in one offence. In some instances, a vehicle is recovered before it is reported as
stolen to Police.
Not all stolen vehicles are stolen in a Theft of Vehicle or Unlawful Takes offence. There
may be other instances, such as a robbery where the suspect takes a vehicle afterwards,
or an assault. Note that if more serious offences are committed at the same time, the
person may not always be charged with each individual offence, in line with the Solicitor-
General’s Prosecution Guidelines2. There could also be concurrent offences, such as
drugs being discovered in a stolen vehicle.
1 https://www.police.govt.nz/about-us/structure/police-districts
2 https://www.crownlaw.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/Prosecution-
Guidelines/ProsecutionGuidelines2013.pdf
Some offences may have multiple identified offenders and each of them may have a
different proceeding decision (for example, one could be prosecuted while another
referred to youth services, in the same offence).
Additionally, a conviction can result in multiple sentences, such as order for destruction,
community service, and reparation.
The summarised tables therefore show the number of offences in occurrences where
vehicles were recorded as stolen, not the number of vehicles.
Table 1. Offence outcomes for vehicles reported stolen between 1 June 2023 to 31 May 2024 in
Lower Hutt, as at 11 July 2024.
Offences in occurrences where a
Offence outcome as at 11 July 2024
vehicle was recorded as stolen
Duplicate
6
Error
3
No further line of enquiry
610
Not an offence
17
Offender identified
127
Police discretion
27
Victim Uncooperative/Unavailable
16
Under investigation
218
Total
1,024
There are also instances where a vehicle was reported stolen and later the victim
realised, for example, that they simply forgot where they parked it. Such instances would
be re-coded as No Offence.
Table 2. Outcomes in offences where offender was identified for occurrences with stolen vehicles
between 1 June 2023 to 31 May 2024 in Lower Hutt, as at 11 July 2024.
Offence Outcomes where offender was
Sentence Type as at 11
Offences in occurrences where
identified as at 11 July 2024
July 2024
a vehicle was recorded as stolen
Prosecution - Case Proved and
Social Welfare
10
Sentenced (Youth Court)
Supervision
Prosecution - Case Proved and
Supervision With
5
Sentenced (Youth Court)
Residence
Prosecution - Convicted
Not yet sentenced
18
Prosecution - Convicted and Discharged
1
Prosecution - Convicted and Sentenced
Community Detention
1
Prosecution - Convicted and Sentenced
Home Detention
1
Prosecution - Convicted and Sentenced
Imprisonment
6
Prosecution - Convicted and Sentenced
Intensive Supervision
2
Prosecution - Convicted and Sentenced
Order For Destruction
1
Prosecution - Convicted and Sentenced
Supervision (SA2007)
1
To Come Up For
Prosecution - Convicted and Sentenced
3
Sentence If Called Upon
Prosecution - Discharged under Section
Order For Destruction
1
282 CYPF Act
Prosecution - Discharged under Section
Reparation/Restitution
1
282 CYPF Act
Prosecution - Discharged under Section
4
282 CYPF Act
Prosecution - Withdrawn By Leave
16
Prosecution - Proceedings in progress
51
Te Pae Oranga
1
Youth Referral
47
Unique Total
156
Data in this response is drawn from a dynamic operational database and is subject to
change as new information is recorded or updated.
Please note that as part of its commitment to openness and transparency, Police
proactively releases some information and documents that may be of interest to the
public. An anonymised version of this response may be publicly released on the New
Zealand Police website.
Ngā mihi
Zane Kearns
Director: Performance and Data (acting)
