Home detention for getaway driver in Caltex Tauriko robbery

Toni Welsh-Phillips, who drove the getaway car after a robbery at Caltex service station in Tauriko, was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court yesterday. Photo / George Novak

A Bay of Plenty woman who drove the getaway car after two associates robbed the Caltex service station in Tauriko last June has avoided prison.

Toni Welsh-Phillips was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court to nine months' home detention on Thursday after she earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of being an accessory after the fact to an aggravated robbery.

Phillips was also given 120 hours' community work and must also pay $6.60 reparation.

That is her share of the cost of a packet of cigarettes stolen during the June 29, 2017, robbery.

Navarone Fraser, 20, one of the two associates who admitted robbing the service station after assaulting the assistant manager was jailed for 3½ years in January.

Fraser's prison sentence also includes time for charges of unlawful entry into a building, unlawful use of a motor vehicle and an unrelated charge of driving while disqualified.

The getaway car was spotted by a police patrol car as it travelled through Hinuera. Inside were 70 packets of stolen tobacco and six packs of cigarettes.

Judge Christopher Harding told Welsh-Phillips that deterrent sentences for aggravated robbery were " well understood".

But given her role, her youth, lack of prior convictions and willingness to participate in a restorative justice meeting, home detention was the appropriate outcome, he said.