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Archived Press Releases 2006 5th June 2006

Compensation to inmates could bring Government down – McVicar

(5th June 2006)

"To hell with international law, this is New Zealand and common sense tells us that it is wrong for criminals to continue getting lotto type payouts and benefit from their crimes."

That was the response to news that millions of dollars in compensation is being claimed by inmates, and the organization representing many of the victims warns that this latest round of compensation claims by inmates could bring the Government down.

More than $620,000 has already been paid to inmates over the last six years and another 21 inmates are seeking payouts of $4.854 million from the Corrections Department – for alleged abuse while in prison.

The Sensible Sentencing Trust warns the compensation flood gates are about to open and is calling on the Government to urgently put a stop to the added trauma to victims being caused by these frivolous claims.

The Government introduced the Prisoners and Victims Claims Bill last year to try and stem the flow of claims, but the then Associate Justice Minister Rick Barker said that New Zealand would be in breach of obligations under international law if they ruled out all possibility of compensation.

Trust spokesman Garth McVicar said, "To hell with international law, this is New Zealand and common sense tells us that it is wrong for criminals to continue to get lotto type payouts and financial benefits from their crimes."

"These guys are criminals – they committed a crime, to give them any sort of compensation is a slap in the face to their victim and an insult to decent law-abiding citizens."

"The injustice of paying compensation to criminals while denying real victims like those involved in the RSA case any such compensation will not escape New Zealanders sense of fairness."

"Susan Couch and Tai Hobson are trying to sue for compensation for the brutal massacre at the Panmure/Mt Wellington RSA in 2002, these real victims can’t even get their day in court and yet criminals are paid millions of dollars."

This latest compensation debacle just proves to the Sensible Sentencing Trust that we have a totally offender based Justice system and unless the government looks urgently at the present situation and makes the changes needed, the groundswell of support throughout the community for our victims will eventually bring this government down.

Regards,

Garth McVicar
National Spokesperson,
Sensible Sentencing Trust.