Prolific Waikato shoplifter jailed for $10,000 stealing spree at big-name stores

Briscoes, Bed Bath and Beyond, Farmers, New World, Sports World and Kmart were targets of shoplifter Silvia Tipene during her six-month spree, which ended in April this year.

When a serial shoplifter was busted for a string of thefts from big-name stores that saw her pilfer more than $10,000 in goods, the woman argued she had been “framed”.

Hamilton mum Silvia Koasha Tipene cried to police, “I am being framed and arrested for crimes another person committed.”

Officers had arrested her for thefts totalling $2500 at Sportsworld, Briscoes and Rebel Sport across Cambridge and Hamilton between November 2022 and March this year.

But when the 37-year-old was charged following another shoplifting spree during the same time period, this time at Bed Bath and Beyond, Farmers, Briscoes and New World Te Rapa, she told police she couldn’t remember as it was “too long ago”, but didn’t want to go to jail because of them.

Unfortunately for the mother-of-one, that was exactly what happened when she appeared in the Hamilton District Court for sentencing yesterday.

She faced 23 charges of shoplifting, worth $10,000, and two of aggravated assault.

One of the assaults related to her throwing a part from a barbecue she was trying to steal at a staff member, and the other was when she kicked and swung out at a Cambridge Sportsworld worker as she made off with $269.97 worth of hoodies.

Tipene’s modus operandi was simple: enter a store, grab stock and walk out without paying.

She even roped in a man and a neighbour during a thieving spree at Kmart on April 26. The trio filled a trolley with goods, totalling about $725, and walked out without paying.

As well as hoodies and Kmart stock, Tipene also stole two mattress toppers, worth nearly $1000 each, three coverlets, bedding, men’s T-shirts, jerseys, $150 worth of underwear, “two meat items worth $170.52″ from New World and a $200 bag from Farmers.

In court, her lawyer Russell Boot accepted the only outcome for Tipene was prison.

She had been jailed for shoplifting before and had no current address for a sentence of home detention.

However, he urged Judge Glen Marshall to note her early guilty pleas and the contents of her cultural report, which highlighted her difficult upbringing, poor choice of partners and having to live in emergency housing.

She hadn’t offended in about three years prior to the spree and now wanted to focus on being a better mother.

Judge Marshall told her it was “quite a crime spree over a period of time”.

She could not pay any reparation to her victims, and some crimes were committed while she was on bail for other shoplifting charges.

The judge noted it was odd that Tipene, who served prison terms for shoplifting in 2020, 2018, and 2016, only started offending when she reached her 30s.

“I can’t quite work that out,” he said. “Obviously, life and things just got on top of you, and the circumstances you were in at the time.”

He acknowledged she had been moved around a lot as a child and had a poor choice of adult partners which had seen her in “highly dysfunctional and highly abusive” relationships.

“You went from being shunted from pillar to post [as a child] to being punched from pillar to post,” he said.

“All in all, that makes pretty sad reading.”

After taking a starting point of 18 months in prison, the judge applied various discounts before jailing Tipene for 11 months.

Belinda Feek has been a reporter for 19 years, and at the Herald for eight years, joining the Open Justice team in 2022.