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Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Te Puke tagger and vandal sentenced in Tauranga District Court

Sandra Conchie
By Sandra Conchie
Multimedia Journalist, Bay of Plenty Times·Bay of Plenty Times·
2 Nov, 2021 09:00 PM4 mins to read

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Drethan Mace Whareaorere, 18, from Te Puke was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court on November 2. Photo / NZME

Drethan Mace Whareaorere, 18, from Te Puke was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court on November 2. Photo / NZME


A prolific tagger and vandal has narrowly avoided a jail sentence after causing thousands of dollars of damage to properties in and around the Te Puke township.

Victims of Drethan Mace Whareaorere's offending included Te Puke High School, KiwiRail, Spark, two supermarkets, the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, several other businesses and residential properties.

Whareaorere, 18, was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court yesterday on 23 charges, including burglary, thefts, assaulting a police officer, possession of a knife in a public place, unlawfully found in two yards and 15 intentional damage offences.

Thirteen charges related to graffiti offences committed between April 26 and August 2.

He used spray paint and red marker to tag property including a KiwiRail engine parked overnight in Te Puke.

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He also targeted an implement shed, a storage shed, a sports gear shed belonging to a cricket club, a children's playground, and the concrete bowl at Hayward Skate park.

Whareaorere tagged five other business premises as he wandered along Jellicoe St, Te Puke, between July 23 and 25, including a business wall, a phone booth and a roller door.

He also tagged a Te Puke High School building and a public toilet block.

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Whareaorere appeared in court via audiovisual link from the Hawke's Bay Youth Correctional Facility, the court heard.

He threw a brick several times at a CCTV camera owned by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council on August 6, for which the council sought $3,423 reparation.

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Whareaorere told police he was drunk and "got paranoid" when the camera followed him.

On August 17 he also broke a window to enter the Pizza Hut store in Te Puke and stole three bottles of soft drink and 10 tubs of Ben and Jerry's ice cream valued at $150.

He also stole $17.50 of items from New World Te Puke.

The theft from a car offence was committed on September 4 after a security guard left his vehicle unlocked while making a premises check in Mount Maunganui.

Whareaorere stole an iPhone 8, wallet and a torch but discarded the phone and the wallet as he fled into a field with the stolen torch.

Police spotted the torchlight behind a building and Whareaorere hid on top of a large mound of loose gravel and rocks.

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When confronted and told he was under arrest, he yelled profanities and threw several large rocks and the torch in the direction of the constable, missing narrowly.

Whareaorere's lawyer Norman Te Kanawa-Gwynne urged Judge Bill Lawson to impose a sentence of intensive supervision and community detention.

He said Whareaorere was only 18, had no prior convictions and had already spent two months in custody because he could not offer a viable bail address.

Te Kanawa-Gwynne said his client had limited support in the community and intensive supervision would help him address the issues which brought him before the court.

Whareaorere would pay reparation in full if he could, but he was willing to pay as much as he could by instalments within five years, he said.

Judge Lawson said this kind of offending, particularly the graffiti offences had caused "all manner of problems" for the victims and it was only right that full reparation was paid.

"It is very clear these people are rightly frustrated having to clean up your mess..."

The judge said the "sheer number of charges and the gravity of these offences" meant Whareaorere could easily have been spending significant time behind bars.

However, Judge Lawson said he was prepared to step back from that after taking into account Whareaorere's youth, lack of prior convictions, guilty pleas and clear remorse.

Whareaorere told a report writer the graffiti offences were committed when he was "bored or drunk" or used cannabis, and that he stole because he was hungry, the court heard.

The judge sentenced Whareaorere to five months community detention and 18 months intensive supervision and ordered him to pay full reparation of $6,394.47.

"I appreciate, Mr Whareaorere, that this is a lot of money but you are able to arrange pro-rata payments through the court to the various victims over a period of five years."

Judge Lawson said he "remained optimistic" that Whareaorere, with some assistance, could be guided in a better direction and turn his life around.

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