Being left at petrol station turned into burglary spree

The petrol station is collectively owned by 50 community members. Photo / 123RF

Most petrol-station break-ins are smash and grab; time is of the essence. Not so in South Otago.

When Lucian Lance Tipene was left, effectively, with his pants down by his mates, he spent the next hour and a-half ransacking the Clinton service station for cigarettes and cash.

The 35-year-old had been at a function to celebrate the end of the shearing season on March 31 — "what can only be described as a major booze up", Judge Kevin Phillips said.

The Dunedin District Court this week heard Tipene was dropped off to use the toilet on his way home, but when he was finished his ride was gone.

His response was first to vandalise the service-station forecourt, taking the fittings off several fuel pumps and throwing them around.

Tipene said he thought it would trigger a security alarm and someone would come to his aid. They did not.

So Tipene threw a large rock through the shop's front window.

He tried to get in through the hole he had created but it was too tight a squeeze. The court heard that Tipene then grabbed the weighted base of a sign and used it to widen the opening. The alarm, including lights and siren, went off.

But no-one responded to it and Tipene spent the next 90 minutes burgling the premises. Over three trips, the defendant made off with 39 packets of cigarettes and nearly $2000. A till draw he pilfered was found in an open shed nearby.

Tipene was only identified as the culprit five months after the break-in but Judge Phillips acknowledged he came clean as soon as the spotlight fell on him.

"Today we have a man who has looked hard at his life," the judge said.

Tipene, the court heard, had saved $1600 to contribute to the bill and had abstained from alcohol with counselling help.

Defence counsel Brendan Stephenson said his client received strong support from his partner and his church and was "on a dedicated pathway to rehabilitation and new direction in his life".

A restorative justice conference with representatives of the 50 community members who collectively owned the service station underscored that.

Tipene told them not a day went by that he did not regret that night and he swore he would pay everything back.

Should Tipene be imprisoned, the judge said, all his efforts to turn his life around would be "down the toilet".

He was sentenced to six months' community detention, 150 hours' community work, nine months' supervision and ordered to make reparation of $7649.