A recidivist shoplifter who continued her habit after moving to Northland from Auckland will serve home detention for six months.
Whangarei mother Mara Kemp, 28, had earlier pleaded guilty in the Whangarei District Court to eight charges of shoplifting and one of wilful damage and this week she appeared for sentencing.
In one instance, Kemp had struck a security officer with a plastic bottle outside New World in Regent while being confronted after she left with assorted groceries in a bag without paying for them.
The incident happened on September 2 last year.
After striking the security officer, she jumped in the passenger's seat of the car and was driven away.
Her shoplifting spree using a dark-coloured bag comprised three thefts from Caltex service stations on Western Hills Drive and Tarewa Rd, three from Z Energy on Water St, and thefts from New World in Regent and Bunnings.
On August 3, 2012, she left Caltex with a number of chocolate bars and sushi worth $23.10, without paying for them.
She stole a Red Bull, a box of multigrain cereal, Weet-Bix, a can of spaghetti and pies from Z Energy on different occasions.
On August 30, 2013, Kemp was approached by an employee of Caltex on Tarewa Rd after she walked out of the store with three pies without paying for them.
She continued to walk away, later pushing the female employee in her face a number of times and causing her to stumble backwards.
At Bunnings on October 20, she walked around the store and gathered various tools and gas cartridges valued at $507 before walking out.
When questioned, she denied being involved in the thefts, saying she had never been to Z Energy or Bunnings.
The wilful damage charge arose from a fight Kemp got involved in with representatives from Screentime who accompanied police to Raumanga to record events for a TV show.
In court this week, her lawyer Wiremu Puriri said Kemp came from Auckland at the time of the shoplifting and tried to settle in Whangarei with her four children. She was remorseful and was open to a short rehabilitative process, he submitted.
Judge Greg Davis said with three previous convictions for shoplifting in 2012, her latest offending wasn't borne out of necessity but primarily from the influence of those she associated herself with.
In two incidents, he noted she had resorted to violence when confronted about the thefts in order to get away with her offending.
Judge Davis ordered that Kemp observe a curfew from 8pm to 6am daily during her six-month home detention and pay $612.08 to businesses she stole items from. A further reparation of $802 was ordered to be paid to Screentime for damage to its video camera.