Ex-employee involved in the Warehouse Dargaville robbery

The last of four people, Rocky White, involved in the aggravated robbery of The Warehouse in Dargaville has also been sent to jail. Photo/John Stone

Rocky White was the inside man for a robbery of Warehouse in Dargaville - the former staff member had spent four years working at the store, knew the layout and helped plan the terrifying caper.

White wasn't one of the two men who stormed the store armed with a cut-down rifle, among other weapons.

But his role as planner and lookout has earned him a prison sentence of four years and five months.

White had worked at The Warehouse for nearly four years. His years of work there meant he knew details of how to access and exit the store, and where the high value goods were stored.

It was knowledge he put to use three years after leaving The Warehouse when he and relative Thomas Nathan began planning an aggravated robbery at the retail giant.

White supplied the floor plan and acted as a lookout during the armed hold-up.

White, 42, told the High Court in Whangārei where he was sentenced yesterday he was manipulated into committing the crime in order to maintain the whanau relationship.

Along with the prison sentence, he was ordered to pay $200 in reparation out of the $16,738 — a quarter share of the loot. The reparation was lower than the Crown had sought, largely because it was found he had no realistic chance of paying the full amount.

White was the last of the four people involved in the night-time robbery on May 28, 2017 in which $242,805 worth of jewellery and $27,612 in cash and cheques were stolen.

Nathan was last year jailed for three years and eight months for his part in the heist.

White took the robber Daniel Cameron and Kaipara Anderson to and from
The Warehouse on the night of May 28, 2017.

Anderson got five years and 10 months — reduced to four years and seven months on appeal— while Cameron was jailed for five years and two months.

Cameron was armed with a cut-down .22 calibre rifle while Anderson had a screwdriver and a pair of scissors during the robbery during which five store employees were threatened and bound.

Before the robbery, White texted Nathan and asked him what was happening and told him police had just driven past him.

In another text, White told him he was considering leaving as it was taking to long.

Nathan encouraged him to stay.

Sentencing White, Justice Paul Davison said it was unclear who the ringleader of the aggravated robbery was but said White's involvement was greater than that of Nathan.

The floor plan White provided helped plan the robbery and his culpability was greater than that of a person who acted as a lookout, he said.

Justice Davison said although White regretted the effect his action has had on his family, he did not express remorse in any meaningful way and appeared to minimise his offending.

That lack of insight increased his risk of reoffending and precluded discounts courts normally gave in recognition of remorse, the judge said.