Thief sentenced at Napier District Court after police find fingerprints on the money jar

The Napier courthouse. Photo / File

A woman jailed for burgling homes of two elderly men in search of money to support a drug habit has been offered a lifeline in another attempt to help her kick her addiction and turn her back on a career of more than 80 convictions in little more than 10 years of offending.

June Annette Tihema, aged in her early 30s, was sentenced in Napier District Court on Friday to 20 months' jail but granted leave to apply for home detention if a suitable address can be found.

She had pleaded guilty to burglary charges relating to entering the homes of a 90-year-old man and a 78-year-old in February last year.

Both were at home but she escaped detection as she snuck inside and took items such as a wallet, loose cash and coins from a jar.

With 33 previous convictions for burglary and 52 for other dishonesty, she was identified from fingerprints from the money jar, and when apprehended she had two rugby-match tickets which had been in a stolen wallet.

Apparently noticing the defendant weeping from her booth in a prison where she had been on remand awaiting the sentencing, and from where she was appearing via audio-visual link, Judge Gordon Matenga said in relation to rehabilitation: "I can see from the emotion this is causing you that this is something you really want to do."

The judge recognised she had spent a considerable time in custody on remand and expected it would be taken into account in her release.

Defence counsel Peter Austin said Tihema had been in-and-out of custody and remand on bail in the year since the latest offences were committed and suggested the sentence could be commuted to time-served with an emphasis on rehabilitative rather than punitive elements.