One of two men who robbed the Sunnyside Dairy in Kamo of tobacco has gone to jail. Photo / Michael Cunningham
One of two teenagers who robbed a Whangārei dairy at knifepoint making off with tobacco valued at about $1000 has gone to jail.
Nathan Brown, 20, pleaded guilty to robbing Sunnyside Dairy in Eden Terrace, Kamo, with a co-offender on the night of August 17, last year.
The robbery was the second in three months at the dairy and happened in a spate of Northland robberies 12 months when criminals specifically targeted tobacco.
Brown was 19 at the time. His co-accused is a youth so cannot be identified. His case is still progressing through the courts.
Brown was sentenced in the Whangārei District Court this week to two years and two months, and received a three-strikes warning.
Judge John McDonald imposed a further four months' imprisonment to be served cumulatively for later offending - unlawfully taking a vehicle and driving while disqualified, which Brown committed while on bail for the robbery and subject to sentences of supervision under a sentence earlier imposed on him in the North Shore District Court for careless use causing death.
Brown was armed with a machete during the dairy robbery while his co-accused was carrying a knife.
Three shopkeepers were in the store - two behind the counter, another stocking shelves.
They managed to lock themselves in a storeroom as Brown and his co-offender, undeterred by fog canons, continued taking tobacco.
Evidence included CCTV footage from the store and items found in subsequent police searches of the two men's homes.
In victim statements, the shopkeepers said they were still fearful after the first robbery and did not expect to be targeted a second time.
The store would normally have been shut at that time but they were trying to help customers by giving them an opportunity to stock up before a Covid-19 lockdown due to start the next day. They now only open in daylight hours.
The Crown wanted Brown jailed. Denunciation and deterrence needed to be paramount, prosecutor Ally Tupuola said. Case law justified a starting point for the robbery of four years, 10 months to five years. The Crown wanted a further 12-18 months uplift for the later offending.
Brown's lawyer Dave Sayes argued the court could reach an end sentence within the 24-month threshold for conversion to home detention.
He challenged the Crown's argument that jailing Brown was necessary for public protection. The negative effect of imprisonment on young men was well known - many emerged with issues and gang affiliations they did not previously have, which ultimately made them a higher public risk, Sayes said.
He urged the judge not to impose any uplift for the later offending, saying those charges, on a standalone basis, did not normally warrant imprisonment.
Sayes pointed to the contents of a cultural report, which he said highlighted Brown's inability to make wise choices due to the nature of his "horrific" upbringing.
In the care of his negligent parents until he was 8, Brown experienced drug abuse, violence, and the loss of a sibling, the court was told.
In State care until he was 18, Brown was isolated from his other siblings and lived in 30 different placements, the report said.
Judge McDonald rejected Sayes' approach to the sentencing method, saying current case law did not provide for personal factors to be taken into account when establishing starting points.
While Sayes hoped Brown's sentence would be within range for home detention, "sentencing is not all about a man (or woman) who has committed a crime - not about only what might not be good for him and her going forward", the judge said.
"There are two sides to the scales of justice and one must also look at the community and at the effect on the victims," Judge McDonald said.
Citing various other aggravating features, including the effect on the victims - which he noted "no one had spoken about" - the judge set a starting point of four years, 10 months, for the robbery.
There was no discount for remorse - Brown had none, the judge said.
"From what I've read, you don't really care about the effect on the shopkeepers or the woman whose car you took; you don't like rules, you do what you like," the judge said.
For the driving offence, Brown was disqualified for six months, effective on his release from jail.