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Bill looks to increase sentences for explosives use in criminal acts

Author
Felix Marwick,
Publish Date
Mon, 6 Mar 2017, 9:26AM
(NZ Herald)
(NZ Herald)

Bill looks to increase sentences for explosives use in criminal acts

Author
Felix Marwick,
Publish Date
Mon, 6 Mar 2017, 9:26AM

Plans are afoot to increase jail sentences for those who use explosives in criminal acts.

Parliament will debate National MP Alastair Scott's Members' Bill on the issue this week.

Currently the Crimes Act allows for a two-year jail sentence to be imposed on anyone who uses, or enables another person to use, explosives to commit an offence.

Mr Scott's Bill would more than double that penalty, increasing the maximum punishment to a five-year jail term.

He said technology's become much more sophisticated over the last 10 years.

"I picked it up because I could see the importance of making sure that the appropriate weighting of punishment was attached to that crime."

He said it's possible under his law change, that a person could get a tougher sentence for carrying explosives than for carrying a weapon.

But he said the point is the message that it gives.

"It's all very well leaving it to the judiciary, but it gives the message to the judiciary that the explosives, nowadays, is a much more serious crime than simply carrying a dangerous weapon."

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