87 year-old woman rings auction house, foils receiver

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A woman trying to pawn stolen rings was foiled when staff at Barwicks Auction House recognised the items as having been reported stolen by their 87-year-old owner.

On August 8 last year, the elderly woman telephoned the store giving detailed descriptions of seven rings that were recently stolen from her home.

Later that same day, Margaret Ann Tutaki, 50, took to the store a diamond ring, worth about $2300, and a gold wedding band worth about $800, and asked for valuations. Store staff immediately recognised the rings from the owner’s description of them.

They tried to stall Tutaki while police were called but she fled leaving the rings behind.

However, the incident was captured on the store’s security camera system, enabling police to identify and locate Tutaki. She told officers she’d taken the rings to be valued for a man she only knew as John.

Sentencing her this week in Gisborne District Court, for a charge of receiving, Judge Warren Cathcart reached a nominal end sentence of six-month imprisonment but converted it to four months community detention (curfew 7pm – 7am) saying it was the least restrictive appropriate outcome.

In setting an eight-month starting point, the judge accepted counsel Elliott Lynch’s submissions that Tutaki’s culpability was less than that of offenders in comparable cases because she was under duress to sell the rings from a violent and abusive partner.

The judge noted that explanation was different to the one Tutaki gave police. However, he wasn’t in a position to resolve the issue and while self-reported, he had to accept the latter explanation at face value.

Having taken that into account in setting the sentence starting point, he couldn’t take it into account again when considering discounts. That meant the only discount Tutaki could get was for her guilty pleas – a full 25 per cent (two months).

The judge refused to give her a further discount for remorse, saying Tutaki’s expressions of it were only “self-serving”.