Offender to serve full term for 'third strike'

A Rotorua man who robbed two men while armed with a filleting knife will serve all of his jail term after he was given his final warning under the three strikes legislation.

Tama Turei Brown, 21, table hand, appeared in the Rotorua District Court for sentencing after pleading guilty to two charges of aggravated robbery on June 3 at Rotorua. Judge Phillip Cooper sentenced Brown to two years and one month jail - a sentence he will serve in full after he was given a final warning under the three strikes legislation.

He is believed to be one of the first in Rotorua to be given a second and final warning under the legislation which came into force in June 2010.

Under the three strikes law for violent and sexual offenders an offender receives a normal sentence and a warning for strike one, a sentence without parole for strike two, and the maximum sentence for that offence, without parole, for strike three.

Judge Cooper said Brown approached two men who were walking along Bennetts Rd on June 3. Brown confronted them with a filleting knife and demanded they empty their pockets.

Brown robbed one man of his cellphone, a packet of tobacco, cigarette papers, filters and a lighter and robbed the other man of a cellphone. He patted down one of the victims to check for anything else he could take before swinging the knife at the other man, narrowly missing his stomach.

Judge Cooper said Brown had a previous conviction for aggravated robbery committed last year. When Judge Cooper previously gave Brown a final warning, he told him that if he was convicted again for another violent offence he would serve the maximum sentence.