Wrong-way Auckland motorway driver Kingi Karanga turns to Appeal Court to quash convictions

RNZ News

6 hours ago

By Ric Stevens, Open Justice reporter of
Photo:
RNZ / Marika Khabazi
A judge was "literally holding my breath for other motorists" when he saw video footage of Kingi Karanga driving at speed the wrong way down two motorways - bringing "extreme danger to countless people".
Karanga drove against Auckland motorway traffic on three occasions on the same afternoon trying to evade police and their Eagle helicopter as they tracked the stolen vehicle he was in.
On the last occasion, he continued to drive at speed on three deflated tyres after they had been punctured by road spikes.
Karanga, who is now 32, came to a stop and was arrested only when the ute he was driving hit two cars that had stopped in traffic.
He also caused another accident after punching a motorist while trying to hijack his car, prompting the dazed man to drive off and accelerate into a lamppost, leaving him with head injuries.
Karanga's afternoon of mayhem occurred in October 2017 but he was back before the courts last week, after a series of events that have kept him in prison for most of the time since then.
After the highway havoc, Karanga pleaded guilty to "endangering transport", a serious charge that carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison and which is aimed at people who dangerously target transport facilities, including vehicles, ships, aircraft and navigation equipment.
The Crown also laid reckless driving charges as an alternative to endangering transport - a much less serious charge with a maximum penalty of only three months in prison or a fine not exceeding $4500.
In the end, however, it was the three counts of "endangering transport" that stuck - one for each instance of driving the wrong way on the motorways.
On one of the legs of his pursuit, Karanga drove 3.1km on the Southwestern Motorway between Neilson St, Onehunga, and Walmsley Rd, Mangere, in one minute and 45 seconds, against the flow of traffic.
Court documents state Karanga was driving at more than 100km/h and that the free-flowing traffic was also travelling about that speed, indicating a closing speed of more than 200km/h.
Numerous other drivers had to take evasive action to avoid collisions.
He also drove in the opposite direction on the Southwestern Motorway, also against the flow of traffic, before moving to the Southeastern Motorway.
In 2018, the late Judge Rob Ronayne described the driving as "appalling" and extremely dangerous, and said it almost certainly would have caused a death had a high-speed collision occurred.
"I ... watched the Eagle helicopter footage in my chambers and ... I was literally holding my breath for other motorists," the judge said at Karanga's sentencing hearing.
Dashcam video footage taken by another motorist showed Karanga in a red utility driving between the fast lane and the median barrier towards oncoming vehicles, some of which swerved out of their lane to avoid him.
Judge Ronayne jailed Karanga for six years and nine months - a sentence that also took into account other offences, including attempting to unlawfully take a motor vehicle, assault with intent to rob, reckless and dangerous driving, failing to stop, resisting police, and burglary.
There were five burglaries, unrelated to the driving, in which Karanga ransacked houses, was confronted by a victim on one occasion, and urinated on people's clothes.
Six and a half years after being sentenced, Karanga applied to appeal against the endangering transport convictions after learning about a Court of Appeal ruling in another case.
In 2022, the court issued a decision in the other case that said driving the wrong way along a motorway, even at speed, could not be counted as "endangering transport" under Section 270 of the Crimes Act.
This hinged on a technicality. The Court of Appeal ruled that to be convicted under that law, an offender would have to interfere with the road itself, a "transport facility" as specified in the Crimes Act.
If the "transport facility" was another vehicle, it was not interference, the court ruled, to merely drive towards it.
By the time Karanga made his bid to be heard, lawyers for both the Crown and defence had agreed that if the "endangering transport" charges were laid against him after that decision, they would be dismissed.
Karanga argued that his driving would be more appropriately counted as reckless driving, with the much lighter penalty.
At the heart of his application to the Court of Appeal was the question of his liberty.
After being imprisoned by Judge Ronayne, Karanga received further sentences, while imprisoned, from two more judges for offending he committed earlier.
These included aggravated robbery and theft, and added another 18 months to Karanga's sentence.
Karanga was released on parole in March 2023 but was recalled eight months later after being charged with new counts of burglary, breaching release conditions, dangerous driving, and carrying a firearm and ammunition.
He remains in prison. Currently, his release date is in January 2026 but he might have more time added when he appears for sentence in the Waitākere District Court this month for the offending while on parole.
However, Karanga argued before the Court of Appeal that if the endangering transport charges could be reduced to reckless driving, this might affect the amount of time he has to spend in prison overall.
In a decision released last week, the Court of Appeal ruled against allowing Karanga an extension of time to bring an appeal after so many years had passed.
The appeal justices said they might view things differently if they believed substituting the less serious reckless driving charges might make a difference to the overall sentences added to by Judge Ronayne and the other judges for his serial offending.
"If convicted of reckless driving rather than endangering transport, we think it is likely that some or all of the judges would have sentenced Mr Karanga differently on the other charges he faced, to reflect the overall criminality of Mr Karanga's actions," the Court of Appeal decision said.
The court dismissed Karanga's application for an extension of time to bring an appeal.
He is next due before the Parole Board in September this year.
-This story originally appeared in the
New Zealand Herald
.