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Kaikoura District Council v Rayner [2022] NZDC 24357

Published 27 January 2023

Sentencing — selling food without food control plan — failing to register food control plan — Food Act 2014, ss 19, 21, 28, 71, 232, 305 & Sch 1. The defendant cafe owner was for sentence on charges of selling food without a food control plan, and failing to register a food control plan. She had voluntarily surrendered her food control plan registrations to the prosecutor, but continued to sell food afterwards and ignored warnings that doing so was illegal. The defendant had denied that the prosecutor had any jurisdiction over her business. The matter proceeded to Court, where the defendant was found guilty and convicted. In reaching a sentence, the Court observed that the defendant's business was only small; that there was no evidence that the offending had caused actual harm; and that the defendant had consistently refused to engage with the Court system and said that she would not pay a fine. Given the likelihood that the defendant would refuse to comply with a non-custodial sentence, the Court imposed a final sentence of two months' imprisonment. Judgment Date: 2 December 2022.