Case Law

Question 1

IMPORTS SAXTON v POLICE

Answer 1

To import includes “to introduce from abroad or to cause to be brought in from a foreign country”.

Question 2

IMPORTING R v HANCOX

Answer 2

The element of importing exists from the time the goods enter New Zealand until they reach their immediate destination … [ie] when they have ceased to be under the control of the appropriate authorities and have become available to the consignee or addressee”.

Question 3

GUILTY KNOWLEDGE Q v STRAWBRIDGE

Answer 3

Guilty knowledge may be presumed from the evidence, but if the accused can establish that they honestly believed that their act was innocent, they are entitled to an acquittal unless the jury is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that this was not so., eg growing cannabis plants in the belief they were tomato plants.

Question 4

USEABLE AMOUNT POLICE v EMIRALI

Answer 4

“…the serious offence of … possessing a narcotic does not extend to some minute and useless residue of the substance”.

Question 5

PRODUCE OR MANUFACTURE R v RUA

Answer 5

The statute is not intended to create separate crimes of producing and manufacturing a controlled drug. Rather, we are inclined to the view that the use of the words ‘produce or manufacture’ are to be read as complementary and to broadly cover the process of creation of controlled drugs.

Question 6

SUPPLY R v MAGINNIS

Answer 6

Supply involves “more than the mere transfer of physical control … [it includes] enabling the recipient to apply the thing … to purposes for which he desires …”

Question 7

OFFERS TO SUPPLY R v DURING

Answer 7

An offer is “an intimation by the person charged to another that he is ready on request to supply to that other drugs of a kind prohibited by the statute”

Question 8

OFFERING TO SUPPLY R v BROWN

Answer 8

The defendant is guilty of offering to supply in the following instances:

1. When he has a drug which he intends to supply and offers to supply.
2. When he has no drug but intends to get some and offers to supply.
3. When he thinks he has a drug but it is not and he offers to supply a controlled drug.
4. When he intends to mislead the other person by pretending to have a drug to supply and he offers to supply a controlled drug.

“… the making of such an intimation, with the intention that it should be understood as a genuine offer, is an offence”.

Question 9

PROOF OF AGE R v FORREST AND FORREST

Answer 9

The best evidence possible in the circumstances should be adduced by the prosecution in proof of [the victim’s] age”.

Question 10

INTENT R v MOHAN

Answer 10

Intent involves “a decision to bring about, in so far as it lies within the accused’s power, the commission of the offence…”

Question 11

INTENT R v WAAKA

Answer 11

A “fleeting or passing thought” is not sufficient; there must be a “firm intent or a firm purpose to effect an act.”