A man freed from jail on January 8 robbed a business with a firearm the next day in the first of six robberies.
Hughie Amotia Repia, aged 29, was sentenced in the High Court at Hamilton to 13 years in jail with a non-parole period of 8 1/2 years.
Justice Young said Repia was a recidivist robber who didn't care about the effect of his actions.
Crown prosecutor Ross Douch said Repia, who first went to prison when he was 18, had an appalling history, and had committed six armed robberies before his January spree.
His adult criminal history began when he was a 17-year-old committing minor property offences.
He moved on to burglary, stealing cars and possessing weapons when he was 18, and did his first prison stint a year later.
Repia committed his first aggravated robbery at 20.
On January 9 he walked into Waikato Credit Union in Hamilton and asked about opening an account.
He returned minutes later and robbed staff at gunpoint.
Repia then held up a number of Waikato businesses.
Those he robbed described the same polite man in a cap and sunglasses when they gave evidence at his trial.
Justice Young accepted there was no violence involved in the robberies, although one woman had a gun pointed at her head.
Defence lawyer Nitin Deobhakta said Repia was "institutionalised" and felt more comfortable in prison than outside it.
Repia spent his teenage years in social welfare care.
In 1998 at, 24, he was sentenced to six years in prison for two aggravated robberies, one charge of escaping police custody and one charge of assault with intent to rob.
- NZPA
One day of freedom, then a robbery spree
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