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Offender Database Mano Tamati

Mano James Tamati

Alias

.

Offences

Home invasion, aggravated robbery and attack of Te Puke couple Maggie and Peter Bentley in October 2004.
Numerous other convictions in Australia mostly for robbery, assault and theft

Victims

Maggie and Peter Bentley

Offender Affiliations

Hopihana Epiha
Ronald Hira
Desmond Eru

Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1975

Current Location

Prison

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to ten years with a six year minimum non-parole period in May 2005
Parole declined February 2012
Due for another hearing August 2012
Will be out when sentence expires November 2014

Background
NZ Herald story here

This TV One News story details the sentencing and also gave the victims further opportunity to speak on the accompanying video clip

From Sunday Star Times article April 24th 2005 in condensed form here
Tamati and Hopihana Epiha, 40, who pleaded guilty to the attack in January, were deported to New Zealand from Australia after serving time in jail there. Police said they knew these criminals were in the region, but they could do nothing to stop them re-offending. Australian and New Zealand police would not give details of the pair's Australian convictions for privacy reasons.

But sources said Tamati was a member of a gang in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta and served time for numerous convictions, including robbery, assault and theft. Australian Immigration department figures show 120 criminals have been deported from Australia to New Zealand in the past five years, and police say they are powerless to stop them re-offending here.

Although police share information on deportees through Interpol, Australia will not release criminal records on those sent back.

Peter and Maggie Bentley were appalled that known criminals were sent back to New Zealand and released into society while police were powerless to monitor them. They said the system urgently needed to change. "(Police) know these guys come in but there are no checks and balances," Maggie Bentley said.

"There's no parole, there's nothing they can do to keep an eye on them. It makes me angry. The poor policeman out there on the beat is getting no back-up." The Sensible Sentencing Trust wants an Australian and New Zealand treaty to allow better sharing of information about offenders.

There has got to be a line that you cross that you lose some of your rights, and that must mean the privacy rights. These offenders who continue to re-offend are just giving the fingers to the system and laughing all the way.

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Corrections and Additional Information
We endeavour to make this database as accurate as possible, but we are at the mercy of whatever information we can find in various online and offline archives. We rely on the public - that is, people like you - to fill in the gaps that we cannot. If you wish to submit additional information or a correction to this file CLICK HERE . Privacy: Trust policy is that all sources are treated as strictly confidential unless we are explicitly told otherwise. If you wish to see a file removed from this database certain conditions must be met by the offender set out HERE Note that this does NOT apply for those that are the primary offender in a murder, rape, or any sexual offending involving minors. We do not enter into correspondence regarding the guilt/innocence of offenders. Such correspondence is not responded to, especially if the offender concerned has a number of prior convictions

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