‘Don’t blow it’

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

“Mark my words,” Judge Turitea Bolstad told a man facing eight drugs and firearms charges as she sentenced him.

“This is your last opportunity. Don't blow it.”

Anton Ngarangi Poipoi, 23, was sentenced in Gisborne District Court to home detention for 12 months with post-detention conditions.

Counsel Vicki Thorpe submitted a starting point of four years imprisonment, with appropriate discounts for his guilty plea, youth, personal situation and a cultural report.

She told the court he was now in a stable relationship with strong support from his whānau including his aunt and mother.

He had indicated he would move in a positive direction and his grandfather's state of health was significant to him.

Poipoi wanted to vary his bail conditions to support his grandfather. A sentence of home detention was certainly “doable”.

The cultural report highlighted Poipoi's gang connections. He was removed from his parents as a baby because both were involved in gangs, and there were issues with his paternal grandparents as well, including poverty, alcohol, drugs, violence and other offending behaviour, and the area where they lived being “gang-occupied”.

The court did not hear details of Poipoi's specific offending apart from a “convoy” going past and Poipoi being “told to go out and represent, to be visible as the convoy went past”.

Judge Bolstad said it was concerning that Poipoi had taken no responsibility and shown no remorse for the offence. She accepted that gang activity and influence were major factors in his upbringing. He had lived in poverty, and violence, alcohol and drugs were “huge factors”.

“There is clearly a nexus between your upbringing and the offending for which you appear for sentence today,” she said.

“I am prepared to extend a further 30 percent discount for the cultural report and youth, but no more for remorse.”

That brought the end sentence to two years — the upper limit for an electronically monitored sentence to be considered.

“This is serious offending; a serious sentence needs to be imposed,” she said.

“I acknowledge there are background factors outlined in the cultural report and I am prepared to accept those . . . what you need to understand is you need to pull your socks up.

“Your whānau should have been your priority way back.

“Where are your mates? They're not here but your partner is. She's the one that's got to mop up your mess. I'm going to give you an opportunity but it's going to be your last.”

Poipoi was sentenced to post-detention conditions and the judge ordered the destruction of the firearm and ammunition.