Within a month of being given supervision for carrying out a series of bank raids, James Shevan Cassidy robbed two more banks.
Yesterday, the Court of Appeal in Auckland set aside the supervision for the first spate of robberies and instead imposed a four-year jail sentence with a minimum two-year non-parole period.
Cassidy, 28, of no fixed address, is still to be sentenced for the two later offences.
He was originally given supervision by Judge Nicola Mathers in the Auckland District Court on July 4.
But within a few weeks he robbed the Westpac in Onehunga Mall and the ANZ branch in Queen St.
The Solicitor-General appealed against the leniency of the supervision sentence.
Delivering the Court of Appeal decision, Justice David Baragwanath said the appeal must be granted.
Cassidy admitted charges of robbery and demanding with menaces at four banks in the first spate of offending last November: the BNZ in Karangahape Rd, the BNZ branch at the Sky City casino, the ASB in Newton and the BNZ at the corner of Victoria and Manners Sts, Wellington.
The day after the final offence, Cassidy went to police to confess, saying he was sorry.
At two of the banks Cassidy gave staff a note saying he had a bomb in his backpack.
At another branch the note said Cassidy had a gun and was prepared to use it.
The note at the casino read: "I have a bomb. Just give me all the money in your drawer. Thank you.
"I will detonate my home-made bomb. I have nothing to lose."
Cassidy was given $200 but then demanded $10,000 that he had just seen a customer deposit.
The demanding with menaces charge related to his instructing an associate how to perform a similar robbery at the Wellington bank, while he waited outside.
Justice Baragwanath said that none of the $13,190 taken from the Auckland banks was recovered.
No money was handed over in Wellington.
Judge Mathers had attributed Cassidy's offending to his serious drug dependency and gave him supervision with a condition that he complete an Odyssey House drug rehabilitation programme.
But he left the programme within a month.
A probation report assessed his risk of re-offending as high.
Justice Baragwanath said victims had a range of reactions, from anxiety to stoicism.
"Little imagination is needed to understand the effects of the threats, which were sufficiently plausible to cause the tellers to respond as they did."
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