Heta Tehaara appears in Auckland District Court for sentencing after pleading guilty to participating in a smash-and-grab robbery at a Michael Hill Jeweller in Westgate’s NorthWest Shopping Centre. Photo / Craig Kapitan
Heta Tehaara appears in Auckland District Court for sentencing after pleading guilty to participating in a smash-and-grab robbery at a Michael Hill Jeweller in Westgate’s NorthWest Shopping Centre. Photo / Craig Kapitan
Heta Tehaara was sentenced to two years and 11 months for an armed robbery in West Auckland.
He threatened an elderly bystander with a machete during the violent smash-and-grab, which caused panic in the mall on a busy Sunday afternoon.
With authorities on his tail and a police helicopter monitoring from overhead, a man who had already spent the vast majority of his adult life in prison saw the writing on the wall and decided to go for broke.
Heta Tehaara, of Auckland, threw his phone out the window, turned off the headlights and gunned his Nissan Teana as he weaved through traffic before speeding the wrong way up the off-ramp of Auckland’s Southern Motorway - causing other motorists to take drastic actions to narrowly avoid head-on crashes.
It turned out the attempt to flee, which ended without success after almost 8km, would be the least of Tehaara’s legal woes. The 28-year-old received a conviction and discharge this week for the dangerous driving charge as he appeared in Auckland District Court for sentencing.
But Judge Rebecca Guthrie also ordered a sentence of two years and 11 months’ imprisonment for the armed robbery of a West Auckland jewellery store - during which he threatened an elderly bystander with a machete and helped cause well over $300,000 in damage and losses - that had taken place just hours before the dangerous motorway mayhem.
Heta Tehaara appears in Auckland District Court for sentencing after pleading guilty to participating in a smash-and-grab robbery at a Michael Hill Jeweller in Westgate’s NorthWest Shopping Centre. Photo / Craig Kapitan
“This is the type of offending which unfortunately has become all too common but has far-reaching consequences,” the judge said of the robbery, noting the need to deter Tehaara and others with her sentence.
Panic and fear
Shoppers at Westgate’s NorthWest Shopping Centre barricaded themselves inside stores and ran from the mall in panic on what had been a busy Sunday afternoon last year as a group of bandits noisily smashed the glass display cases inside a Michael Hill Jewellers store, the Herald reported at the time.
A shopkeeper described watching nearby stores slam their shutters closed as the chaos ensued.
“Five people entered just next to us, walking fast, and we immediately realised they were going to rob a store because they were dressed in black from head to toe,” another witness told the Herald. “Everyone went out of the mall, the fog canyons went off and people were shaking outside in the car park.”
Tehaara and others had begun planning for the heist that morning, gathering at a home in Papatoetoe to assemble disguises and gather bags that would be used to haul the stolen loot, according to court documents released this week to the Herald.
They then drove a two-car convoy from South Auckland to West Auckland, where seven people crammed into a Subaru SUV that had been stolen earlier that week, according to the summary of facts agreed to by Tehaara.
“The group was heavily disguised, wearing masks and gloves that covered their faces and hands,” documents state. “Some of the defendants were armed with weapons which included hammers, an axe and a machete.”
They ran straight to the Michael Hill jewellery store, causing the two employees inside to flee.
A video still shows Heta Tehaara participating in the April 28, 2024, smash-and-grab robbery at a Michael Hill Jeweller in Westgate’s NorthWest Shopping Centre. Photo / NZ Police
As others smashed the glass cabinets with a hammer, an axe, their body weight and even the store’s own cash register, Tehaara stood guard at the front of the store with a machete, warning off bystanders.
“An elderly witness was nearby and began to record the incident on his phone,” authorities noted in the summary of facts. “Mr Tehaara approached the elderly male and waved the machete at his face, demanding that he stop recording.”
The group fled to the waiting Subaru after an employee activated the store’s fog cannon, but by that point the caper had already been a success - albeit a fleeting one. They managed to steal more than $260,000 worth of merchandise, causing over $76,000 worth of damage to the store in the process.
A month and a half later, police would share a photo of a conference room table strewn with confiscated jewellery - the result of weeks of detective work and search warrants across Auckland.
Police display the significant amount of jewellery that was recovered during multiple search warrants across Auckland following the robbery. Photo / NZ Police
But the full amount was never recovered, Judge Guthrie was told this week.
Prosecutors said Michael Hill did not respond to a police request to identify the value of the still-missing items. As such, the judge declined to order restitution.
Over five hours had passed - during which time Tehaara stopped by his house, changed his outfit, went to a co-defendant’s house and reviewed the loot - by the time police spotted him in Manurewa at 9.05 that same evening.
“When Tehaara realised he was being followed, he threw his cell phone from the moving vehicle, turned the headlights off and accelerated away,” documents state. “Police activated their red and blue flashing lights and sirens, directing Mr Tehaara to stop.
“Mr Tehaara weaved in and out of traffic, entering the Auckland Southern Motorway the wrong way and drove on the wrong side of the motorway without headlights on, at speed. He narrowly missed members of the public in their vehicles, as he drove in the opposite direction. Members of the public had to make drastic manoeuvres to avoid a head-on collision.”
After exiting the motorway, headlights still off, Tehaara headed towards the Manurewa central area and his tyres were spiked - causing them to disintegrate.
He eventually abandoned the car and fled on foot, but it was no use with the police helicopter overhead. Police found and arrested him a short time later.
‘Wasting away in prison’
Defence lawyer Daniel Shellenberg acknowledged during the sentencing hearing this week that his client’s driving has been “atrocious”. He also accepted that the court didn’t have any other option than to impose a sentence of imprisonment.
But he asked that the sentence not be crushing, noting that Tehaara had already spent eight years in prison - from the ages of 17 to 25 - following his last robbery conviction. He had been free for less than two years at the time of the Michael Hill heist.
“Mr Tehaara has spent most of his adult life in prison and unfortunately it’s not really working for him,” he said.
Police respond at the Northwest Shopping Centre Massey on April 28, 2024, after armed robbers raided the Michael Hill Jeweller store. Photo / Alex Burton
“He’s really reached a point where he realises he needs to turn things around - otherwise he’s going to keep wasting his life away in prison.”
Shellenberg said Tehaara wished to tell the latest victims, who were not present in court, that he was sorry.
He noted that his client hasn’t “had the easiest life”, which he said had a causative link to the offending. Crown prosecutor Isabella Joe didn’t disagree, acknowledging that some discounts were warranted for the defendant’s background.
Joe sought a starting of six years’ imprisonment before reductions for mitigating factors, while the defence sought five years.
Judge Guthrie settled on a compromise starting point of five years and six months, noting that the offending wasn’t particularly sophisticated but was no doubt premeditated. The number of people involved in the heist would have contributed to the “extreme fear” among mall employees and customers, she added.
“Clearly, this is significant offending,” she concluded.
Two months were added to the starting point for driving “which is of itself high-risk and highly dangerous behaviour”, and a further three months were added for his prior criminal history.
Police attend the Northwest Shopping Centre Massey following the robbery. Photo / Alex Burton
The judge noted that he was assessed in a pre-sentence report as being at a high risk of causing harm to others in the future.
She also noted that both Michael Hill employees described lingering fear and anxiety. One woman said it was the third time she’s been robbed on the job, averaging to about one incident per year.
But Judge Guthrie also acknowledged the defendant’s upbringing, in which he was raised in an environment with gang activity, drug and alcohol use and violence inflicted on his mother. His poor decision-making skills, she concluded, can be partially attributed to his mother having drank to excess while pregnant.
“His family did the best with what they had but the environment was unhealthy,” the judge said. “Mr Tehaara was a victim of that unhealthy environment.”
He was exposed to drug use by about 8 years old and left school at 14, eventually ending up in a youth detention centre. His drug abuse continued in prison, with him being admitted to the Mason Clinic psychiatric facility at one point due to drug-induced psychosis.
She allowed the sentence to be reduced by 50%: 25% for his guilty pleas, 5% for remorse and 20% for his background, which she described as “integrally linked” to the offending.
A 19-year-old co-defendant is set to appear for sentencing in July. Others await trial.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
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