A brief word on Phillip Smith

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We can arrest student loan & fine defaulters at the airport – but not convicted child molesting killers? Before we ban manufactured ISIS ‘terrorists’ from having passports, how about we just manage to stop child molesting killers from fleeing first?

Officials we’re warned about the loophole Smith exploited and did nothing. This is on Key’s watch, no amount of ‘it’s Labour’s fault’ explains this.

8 COMMENTS

  1. I wouldn’t mind being a fly on the wall at the debriefing meetings that must be going on within Corrections/Justice/Internal Affairs at the moment. Ouch!

    • Having sat through similar debriefings I can assure you they will consist of “how can we hide this or that” and what story can we tell that the public will fall for.

      Fact is, this problem is much bigger than is being told. It is not just a passport issue but also any offender that has applied for job which needs verification etc. Very convenient having criminal record attached to one name, and being able to live and work in the community in another. Smith will not be the only one, by far.

  2. Try being a beneficiary with a valid passport (if you can afford one) and no criminal convictions. We are so data-matched with Immigration that WINZ know the second we’ve left the country. And heaven help you if you haven’t asked their permission to leave first because your benefit will be cut off the next day. Heaven help you even more if you’re in any job seekers group because you need a bloody good reason to even be allowed to leave the country (never for a holiday)and it’s at the discretion of whatever case worker you deal with. Too bad if you have to make an emergency flight to Oz for a sick relative on a Sunday and can’t ask permission first.

    When I wasn’t laughing at this whole keystone Corrections fiasco I was even more aware of how much of a prisoner we are in our own country. True, technically we can leave, but the financial consequences mean the rent and bills can’t be paid, ergo we need the State’s permission to leave NZ. What other group in the population needs that? Parolees?

    Certainly confirms what many of us already know how the Govt views us- further down the food chain than murders and peadophiles.

    • Well said Kay, “further down the chain than paedophiles” is so true. Even though the economy needs unemployment beneficiaries are still blamed and punished for it.

  3. everything is Labours fault, especially Aunty Helens fault, because it is.

    really
    I like how no one ever mentioned Jenny Shipley as she who came before Aunty Helen.

    Maybe it is all Jennies fault?

  4. Interesting how there is an ad currently on TV showing a family about to go on holiday being prevented from getting on a plane because of an unpaid fine. If the computer system used by all the relevant departments can flag up an unpaid fine to prevent international travel, then I am at a loss to understand how it can’t flag up a criminal conviction as serious as this! Unless there is actually no system to cross reference anyone at all and we are all being sold a big lie. Wouldn’t put it past National to do something like this, it is quite within their character.

    • That is because they people are using just one name.

      The problem arises when an offender is born with one name, and it has been changed (as many have through broken marriage etc). Each offender is given a PRN which is attached to the legal name, and usually, ‘also known as’ names are linked to that PRN as well.

      Smith was born with the name Traynor, but when he offended all his offences were linked to Smith – the name Traynor was known by Corrections, and even with their knowledge used by him, but for some reason DIA did not check – if they had, they would have seen both names listed.

      The worry is that Smith is not the only offender to have changed names. He was detected because he escaped custody, but how many have finished sentence, and are living amongst us, legally, using their other ‘legal’ name – and when they reoffend go back to using their second name, and so offending is never linked to first name, which remains clean.

      • All well and good, but why should someone be stopped from travelling because they haven’t paid some stupid fine?

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