{"id":328700,"date":"2026-03-14T02:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T02:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/328700\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T02:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T02:55:08","slug":"new-zealander-nathan-teraki-jailed-in-australia-over-fatal-crash-while-drugged-avoids-deportation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/328700\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealander Nathan Teraki jailed in Australia over fatal crash while drugged avoids deportation"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the time, Teraki tested positive for amphetamine, methamphetamine and the active ingredient of cannabis.<\/p>\n

He faced a looming deportation order, but has succeeded in having it overturned, after Australian immigration authorities agreed to cancel an application to revoke his visa.<\/p>\n

Teraki claimed he had become so stressed about events in his life, and after the tragedy in October 2022, he began self-harming by \u201cpulling out his teeth\u201d.<\/p>\n

Deportation loomed after fatal crash<\/p>\n

The process to cancel Teraki\u2019s special category (temporary) visa began soon after he was convicted and sentenced.<\/p>\n

Despite his appeal, authorities decided last December to continue down the path of cancelling the visa, because the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship was not satisfied that Teraki passed the character test.<\/p>\n

But in a decision released this month, the Administrative Review Tribunal of Australia<\/a> found that, after weighing all the evidence, factors in favour of reversing the decision to cancel his visa outweighed the alternative.<\/p>\n

\"NathanNathan Teraki has succeeded in convincing Australian authorities not to deport him after he was sent to prison for causing a fatal road crash. Photo \/ NINE NEWS<\/p>\n

The tribunal said that while Teraki\u2019s criminal conduct was \u201cvery serious\u201d, as highlighted by the fact he killed an innocent person, his conduct in Australia <\/a>otherwise was not, in the nature of systemic criminal activities, over an extended period of time. <\/p>\n

Instead, his conviction arose when driving to work in circumstances where he was affected by drugs and should not have been driving. <\/p>\n

While there was evidence of different criminal conduct from 2001 until 2003, when Teraki was living in New Zealand, there was no suggestion, let alone evidence that such conduct had been repeated in Australia, senior tribunal member Mark Harrowell said.<\/p>\n

His record in New Zealand included common assault, possession of cannabis and utensils, burglary and breach of a community work order.<\/p>\n

Teraki claimed he could not recall the assault charge or what had occurred.<\/p>\n

\u2018Nothing in NZ to return to\u2019<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old was born in New Zealand and arrived in Australia in September 2010 with his then-wife and two children.<\/p>\n

Their third child was born after they arrived in Australia. The pair later separated.<\/p>\n

Teraki had since faced a domestic violence order imposed by police in 2023, effective until August 2028, which contained a good behaviour condition.<\/p>\n

Teraki, whose mother lived in New Zealand<\/a>, said in his original revocation application he had not been back for eight years since there was nothing for him to return to. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my first and only charge I have had and is really out of character for me,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Teraki wrote that he had been independent since an early age, and had lived with his grandmother during his teens.<\/p>\n

He described his relationship with his mother as \u201cgood\u201d and that they talked, and that she had offered him a place to stay with her.<\/p>\n

However, he feared \u201creturning to old habits\u201d if sent back to New Zealand, and separation from his children, who were a \u201cmassive\u201d part of his life.<\/p>\n

He claimed to have been working too hard to hide his depression<\/a> from his children since the death of his father in 2017, when he ought to have sought help instead.<\/p>\n

A medical specialist\u2019s report pre-sentencing described Teraki having a \u201cmajor depressive disorder\u201d which was both chronic and severe.<\/p>\n

The court also noted his \u201cchronic cannabis dependence\u201d, alcohol abuse and \u201csome symptomology consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder\u201d and a previous history of methyl amphetamine use. <\/p>\n

The PTSD was said to be partly related to Teraki\u2019s early family history.<\/p>\n

Working three jobs<\/p>\n

Teraki said he was working three jobs at the time of the fatal crash, to help pay the mortgage and support his family. <\/p>\n

He started taking drugs to sleep and to be awake for work, and had taken them before driving to work on the morning of the crash.<\/p>\n

He claimed to have started \u201cpulling his teeth out\u201d, because of everything that had happened, but was now getting help.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want my kids to look up to me, not down at me,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Teraki said since being in prison he had become completely drug-free, had stopped taking medication and \u201cfelt the best\u201d he ever had.<\/p>\n

He said he had \u201cawesome support\u201d from family and upon release he aimed to work full-time as a builder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to live with what happened that day and always will. But [I] have changed my thinking and look at life,\u201d Teraki wrote.<\/p>\n

The tribunal concluded that it was not in dispute that Teraki failed the character test; the issue in the proceedings was whether there was another good reason why the cancellation of the visa should be revoked.<\/p>\n

It considered his risk of re-offending as low, and his family ties and social links in Australia were \u201csignificant\u201d, which all weighed in favour of reversing the decision to cancel his visa.<\/p>\n

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ\u2019s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the time, Teraki tested positive for amphetamine, methamphetamine and the active ingredient of cannabis. He faced a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[31990,85,1135,33524,2841,3549,5033,20106,111515,11784,15124,78,14641,11156,5158,89505,117,111,43,139,69,1523,4056,8442,13120,74908,176827,2044,1316,6123,118,35111],"class_list":["post-328700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-adopted","tag-australia","tag-australian","tag-avoids","tag-country","tag-crash","tag-deportation","tag-drove","tag-drugged","tag-fatal","tag-fight","tag-in","tag-jailed","tag-killing","tag-man","tag-nathan","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-person","tag-prison","tag-remain","tag-serving","tag-teraki","tag-time","tag-when","tag-while","tag-zealandborn","tag-zealander"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}