Planned legislation to add presumptive sentence of vehicle destruction or forfeiture
The government will introduce new legislation in mid-2025 to impose an array of stricter measures and penalties aiming to discourage antisocial and intimidating driving, announced Chris Bishop, transport minister, and Mark Mitchell, police minister.
“People have had enough of boy racers and their dangerous, obnoxious behaviour,” Mitchell said in a news release from the government.
“We’re saying enough is enough,” Bishop said in the news release. “Kiwis are sick of seeing these idiot drivers putting everyone around them at risk, so we’re taking action through a range of much tougher penalties.”
“These people drive without regard for the danger and disruption it causes to our communities,” Mitchell added in the news release. “They have no consideration for anyone other than themselves.”
The government shared that one planned change entails imposing a presumptive, court-ordered sentence of vehicle destruction or forfeiture for people who flee police, street racers, those participating in intimidating convoys, and vehicle owners failing to identify offending drivers.
“This means that, if someone is convicted of these offences, courts must order that vehicle be destroyed or forfeited to the Crown to be sold,” Bishop said in the news release.
Bishop noted that the government will make an exception if the offender does not own the vehicle, if destruction or forfeiture would be manifestly unjust, or if destruction or forfeiture would lead to extreme or undue hardship.
The government said the contemplated changes also include empowering police to manage intimidating convoys and illegal dirt bike gatherings through closing roads or public areas and imposing fines on those who refuse to leave.
According to the government, another change is raising the infringement fee for generating excessive noise from within or on a vehicle to $300 from $50 and increasing the court-ordered fine to $3000 from $1000.
Bishop noted that the current penalties are not tough enough to discourage anti-social or intimidating driving behaviour. Bishop shared that police reports revealed that some types of anti-social road events are happening more often.
“Anti-social road use and illegal street racing have no place in New Zealand,” Mitchell said in the government’s news release. “Our message is clear: if you want [to] drive dangerously, face the consequences.”
