Two aggravated robberies in eight hours in Hawke's Bay

The Mobil Havelock North service station was targeted last night following an earlier aggravated robbery in Napier's Maraenui shopping centre . Photo / Paul Taylor.

Police are investigating a second aggravated robbery in Hawke's Bay last night.

The latest raid was reported at the Mobil Havelock North service station soon after 8pm, when a lone attendant was confronted by a man said to be brandishing a knife and forced to hand over cash.

The robber, and possibly a second person, fled in a station wagon.

Earlier yesterday, just after 12.30pm, a young male, possibly a teenager, robbed a Pricecutter superette in Napier's Maraenui shopping centre, fleeing with cigarettes and cash after threatening a shopkeeper with a mallet.

As of 9.30pm this evening, no one was understood to have been apprehended in relation to either of the raids, which, involving weapons, make offenders liable for prison sentences up to 14 years.

Dairy and service station robberies have, in recent years, escalated in Hawke's Bay in the autumn and early winter.

Last week a 17-year-old was sentenced to six months' community detention for his role in a Flaxmere dairy robbery, with two others, aged 17 and 14, in November last year.

Dairy owner Rakesh Kumar, targeted by three youth carrying knives and a golf club, called for the Government to take such raids more seriously.

One of those youths told police he saw an opportunity to get some money, while another said he intended to rob the store of cash and cigarettes but realised in hindsight it was a bad idea.

A month after the Flaxmere incident a Napier dairy was the target of another attempted aggravated robbery when 42-year-old Kahu Timoti Wihapi was chased from the Hastings St store by a breast cancer fundraiser supporter dressed as a pink fairy.

He had concealed an unloaded single-barrel shotgun in his pants and was sentenced to two years and seven months' jail after pleading guilty to a charge of attempted robbery.

When police spoke to him after the incident he told them he just wanted to go back to prison.