Operation Rhino crime ring boss Vincent James Clayton has had the minimum non-parole period of his prison term reduced by six months on appeal.
Clayton was convicted of 34 charges of receiving stolen property in a long trial in the Christchurch District Court last year, and had also pleaded guilty to 10 fraud charges.
At his sentencing, Judge Michael Crosbie described him being involved in "an insidious underground industry" and jailed him for a total of five years.
But defence counsel Elizabeth Bulger challenged the three year minimum non-parole term in the Court of Appeal, Christchurch Court News website reported.
Justice Potter, in the Court of Appeal judgment, ruled that the minimum non-parole term was too long because it could only apply to the lead sentence - a four-year term for receiving. The additional year was imposed as a cumulative sentence.
The minimum non-parole had to be two-thirds or less of the lead sentence and the three-year period imposed in the District Court exceeded that limit.
He allowed the appeal and reduced the minimum non-parole term from three years to two years six months.
