Crown loses appeal to jail killer driver

The Crown has lost the appeal to jail a driver for his part in a street race that killed four people.

Dylan Cossey was sentenced to 12 months’ home detention, 400 hours’ community work and disqualified from driving for seven years in the High Court at Hamilton in April 2018. The 20-year-old was earlier found guilty of illegally racing and causing the deaths of Hannah Leis Strickett-Craze, 24, Lance Tyrone Robinson, 28, and Paul de Silva, 20, all from Waipa, and Jason McCormick Ross, 19, from Taranaki, on the night of June 24, 2016.

In a written decision released on Wednesday, the Crown appealed on the basis that Cossey’s sentence was ‘‘manifestly inadequate and wrong in principle’’. It said Cossey should have been sentenced to at least five years’ imprisonment.

‘‘Given, however, Mr Cossey has now served almost all of his sentence of home detention ... the Solicitor-General says the sentence that this court should now impose on appeal is one of three and a half years’ imprisonment.’’

Cossey fled from the scene of the head-on smash near Hamilton Airport. He was racing his Honda Integra against a Nissan Skyline at estimated speeds of more than 150kmh. The race came to an end when the Nissan lost control and collided with an oncoming van, killing the four.

During sentencing, Crown Prosecutor Duncan McWilliam sought a starting point of eight to nine years.

Cossey’s counsel, Philip Morgan QC, urged a three-year starting point, which is what Justice Anne Hinton went with.

While Cossey’s actions were ‘‘a substantive and operative cause of death’’ of those killed, they were not the only cause, she said.

The driver of the other car, Lance Robinson, was three times the legal driving limit for alcohol, and had traces of cannabis and methamphetamine in his system.

Cossey was prone to ‘‘impulsive, stupid and rash decision-making’’, Hinton said, but imprisonment would not be in his best interests.

The judgment issued by Justice Denis Clifford agreed with the Crown, that the starting point should have been five years’ imprisonment.

‘‘We are also mindful, in this context, of the time that has now passed since Mr Cossey’s offending – some two and three-quarter years,’’ the decision said. ‘‘That factor also, in our view, counts against now sentencing Mr Cossey to imprisonment.

‘‘Accordingly, although we agree with the Solicitor-General that the sentence imposed by the judge was manifestly inadequate, we do not consider it appropriate to now sentence Mr Cossey to a term of imprisonment.’’

The appeal was dismissed.