A Christchurch businessman is vowing to fight for justice despite being warned that his private prosecution of a young thief could land him with a hefty legal bill, Stuff.co.nz reports.
David Young was not satisfied when Joshua Neil Porter, 19, was sentenced to a year’s jail for stealing his laptop.
Young wanted the computer back, and when the police were not interested in pursuing the case further, he launched a private prosecution under a little-used section of the Crimes Act that deals with computer crime.
Young claims that it was one thing to steal the laptop but another offence to deprive him of it by failing to return it or name the receiver.
“There’s information on that laptop that I want,” he said.
“He’s made no effort to return it or to identify the receiver. Obviously he knows who it is.”
In the Christchurch District Court yesterday, it was Young and not Porter who found himself under scrutiny, emerging with a warning that he could face a hefty costs bill if his prosecution failed.
Outside court, Young said he believed the law was firmly on his side and he vowed to fight any bid to make him pay Porter’s costs if he could not convince the courts about his interpretation of the law.
