Published 01 October 2019
Admissibility — possession of cannabis for supply — propensity evidence — previous convictions — R v Tui [2010] NZCA 243 — Evidence Act 2006, s 43. The defendant faced a charge of possession of cannabis for supply. She denied the offending, saying the cannabis was for her own use. The Crown sought to have admitted as propensity evidence her two previous convictions for similar offending in 2002 and 2012. The Crown's argument was that as the defendant was 74 years old, the jury may reason that she was unlikely to have been involved in drug dealing unless they knew of her previous convictions. The previous convictions established a pattern of offending, especially given the similar details of the different episodes of offending. The defendant argued that the previous convictions were a long time ago, and said that there were too many differences between the sets of offending to allow the previous convictions to be admitted. The Court found that there were differences between the sets of offending but overall the evidence would be helpful for the jury in determining whether the defendant was the sort of person to deal in cannabis. The evidence was inconvenient for the defendant but this was no reason to find it inadmissible. The evidence was ruled admissible. Judgment Date: 7 August 2018.
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