A convicted fraudster who is dying of cancer has been returned to an Auckland prison, as the Department of Corrections says it will review her case.
Vicki Letele was jailed for three years and two months in March for property fraud.
Vicki Letele Photo: Supplied
In September, she was diagnosed with stomach cancer - and has been given fewer than six months to live.
Her parole hearing is not until next April, and an appeal to the Parole Board for early release was unsuccessful, despite her entire medical team insisting she was too sick to be adequately cared for in prison.
Corrections chief executive Ray Smith had ordered a review of the case and its health management, Corrections Minister Judith Collins said.
Her uncle, Ula Letele, told Checkpoint with John Campbell that she had now left Middlemore Hospital and been returned to the women's prison in Wiri.
The family would continue to fight for a compassionate release, he said.
"We're still trying, we haven't given up. When you consider that all of the doctors' advice has been to return her to her home, because she is best cared for there, it's being ignored.
"And when you consider that this meets the criteria of one of the two points that enable the success of an application for early release, and yet they still go against medical professionals' advice. I just don't understand it."
Ms Collins said the decision on when to release her was ultimately one for the Parole Board.
"But obviously Corrections makes recommendations, so [they're] reviewing that Corrections can properly look after the prisoner."
In its decision, the Parole Board said that it had been advised that Letele's care could currently be "satisfactorily undertaken" while she was in prison.
It would be appropriate to release her on compassionate grounds once her condition deteriorated to the point of requiring hospice care, it said.
Read the Parole Board's decision here:
