Parole Board slated over violent offender

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A violent offender has managed to again evade police despite being stopped by officers while cycling through Nelson.

Joshua Andrew Garlick, 23, who was on parole, disappeared from a Westport house on November 24.

A Parole Board decision to release Garlick was "shocking", the Sensible Sentencing Trust said. Police had warned Garlick could be dangerous.

Garlick was released from prison to the Westport address after serving 17 months of a 26-month sentence.

In June last year, he was sent to prison for hitting a man over the head with an iron bar and punching another man unconscious.

Sergeant Matthew Frost, of the Westport police, said officers stopped Garlick as he was riding a bike through Nelson on Monday. "He gave a false name and while they were trying to find his true identity, he ran off," Frost said.

In September, the Parole Board said there was a "relatively high risk" in releasing Garlick on residential conditions, but he would gain little by staying in prison until next May. The board decision said Garlick had been released in May this year, having completed a drug treatment programme, but was recalled when he breached parole conditions.

After the September hearing, the board acknowledged there was more than a 70 per cent chance of Garlick reoffending or going back to prison.

Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Garth McVicar said the board had put the public at risk. "It is shocking when they make those sort of comments ..." he said.

Garlick is 173 centimetres tall and of medium build.