An inmate at Wellington's Rimutaka Prison will be released nearly three months early after he spotted a rare legal oversight.
Shaun Peter Harvey will now leave prison next week after he applied for a writ of habeus corpus - through which a person can seek relief from unlawful detention - in the High Court at Wellington today.
In March, in Te Awamutu District Court, Harvey, then 27, was jailed for 9 1/2 months for driving while disqualified and breaching community work.
Since a short term is automatically halved he would have been released in August.
However, in May in the same court he was also sentenced to seven months jail for 102 unpaid driving fines worth $42,492.
Judge Merelina Burnett's sentencing notes said the sentence would be added to the earlier one, which meant he would be released in late November.
However, Harvey noticed the judge did not actually specify that in court, which was borne out by an audio recording of the sentencing.
Because it was not specified, the law says the two terms must run concurrently rather than cumulatively, meaning a release date of September 9.
Harvey, although representing himself, essentially did not have to say a word in court today, apart from "Yes your honour" when he was told he would be released next week.
Justice Denis Clifford dismissed the habeus corpus, quashed the warrant that kept Harvey in prison until November, and ordered he be released next Wednesday.
Crown prosecutor Jane Foster said she had raised the matter of sentencing with the Justice Department and court administrators. It was a relatively rare event, she said.
