LEAD STORY: Teenage robbery disease - judge

A JUDGE says schools should teach teenagers about the consequences of robbery, to help cut the number of criminals in Hawke's Bay.
Judge Tony Adeane was commenting in the Napier District Court yesterday as he sentenced five males, aged 17 to 22, to terms ranging from two to four years, for their roles in an ``epidemic' of dairy and service station raids.
Police statistics show a record 135 robberies reported last year in the Eastern Police District (Hawke's Bay-Gisborne).
Of 95 people apprehended, 49 were aged 14 to 20.
Judge Adeane told one robber: ``Aggravated robbery by young offenders is becoming an epidemic in this community.
``One useful thing to be taught at school would be the definition of aggravated robbery and that the maximum penalty is 14 years in jail.'
He said most people convicted of the crimes had dropped out of school or been expelled at an early age, suggesting if schools taught children about the consequences of robbery there may be fewer criminals in Hawke's Bay.
Sentenced were:
Michael Bradley Cardno, 21, to three years. He pleaded guilty to one charge of aggravated robbery and two of attempted robbery, relating to a Christmas-week spate of raids on the Sunshine Dairy, the Vigor Brown Street Store and the Barn Mini Mart, all in Napier.
Three Hastings teenagers who admitted robbing the Parkvale Dairy on January 29. Anton Tonihi, 18, with previous convictions for similar offending, was sentenced to three years and nine months, John Houia, 17, was sentenced to three years and Freddy Jackson, 18, two years and three months.
James Hemi Biddle, 22, of Hastings, four years, after being found guilty on a charge of aggravated robbery for his role in a raid on the BP Express, Stortford Lodge, by another man and a woman on August 29 last year.
Cardno targeted three dairies with female shop assistants, starting with the Sunshine Dairy on December 21, when after demanding money for Christmas, he produced a knife and fled with about $400.
Six days later Cardno attempted to rob two more shops within half an hour, being scared away from the Vigor Brown Street Store by an alarm, and heading-to Barn Mini Mart on the corner of Faraday and Thackeray streets.
He fled the store empty-handed on his bike after a customer arrived.
``You are not the only one in your situation today. You and about five others are peas in a pod ... young and guilty of one of the most serious offences in the criminal calibre.' Houia, Jackson and Tonihi stood in the dock together while their families waited for Judge Adeane's decision.
Freddy Jackson Snr cried as he pleaded to keep his son out of jail. ``I have concerns he'd come out harder than he is and we believe there's hope for him,' Mr Jackson said.
``The family ask that an alternative option [than prison] be considered and we would work with the courts to help turn his life around.'
``I acknowledge the strain and stress of what has happened to them [victims] because if it matches the pain of us then it must be really bad,' he said.