Drug 'fiend' gets six years' jail

File photo / Herald on Sunday

A desperate drug addict admitted he was "a fiend who went on a rampage", at his Christchurch District Court sentencing for the knifepoint robbery of three pharmacies.

The 45-year-old man, who has a brain injury after an attempted suicide, had admitted the three Christchurch robberies to get morphine and Ritalin last year. He appeared for sentence before Judge Colin Doherty at a court sitting in the Rangiora Court House.

Peter John Wafer went to the St Martins pharmacy on June 29 disguised with a bandanna on his lower face, and black gloves. He demanded morphine, pulled out a knife, and showed it to the pharmacist.

On July 14 he did the same at the Woodham Road pharmacy and left with morphine and Ritalin.

Six days later he went to the Bealey pharmacy, put the morphine and Ritalin in a pillow case and left.

He had an alleged co-offender who drove him away after all three robberies, but after the last one police caught them a few minutes later.

Defence counsel Tony Garrett said Wafer consumed all the drugs and there was no evidence that he was on-selling them.

He said Wafer was a desperate drug addict, using a knife to get the drug of his choice. There was no physical harm done to anyone and there was no threat to stab or use the knife.

They were robberies by a man who had significant medical issues including a brain injury as a result of an attempted suicide, he said.

He asked the judge to refer Wafer to the parole board for possible admission to the methadone programme. When he previously received methadone on a maintenance dosage there was a significant reduction in his serious crime.

Crown prosecutor David Jackson said there was no way Wafer could have consumed all of the quantities he had taken, but Wafer called from the dock that he did consume all the drugs. "I am a fiend and I went on a rampage," he said.

Judge Colin Doherty said Wafer was a chronic abuser of drugs. He had been using drugs for 31 years and injecting them for 24 years.

He said he had stolen hundreds of dollars worth of drugs. It was premeditated because he was disguised, used a weapon, and decided on each pharmacy.

He said it had had a significant impact on his victims who were fearful at the time and now treated customers differently. It has also had an impact on their families.

The St Martins shop was full of people with a child sitting on the counter, he said.

He sentenced Wafer to six years' prison and reminded Wafer that he had been given the first of the three strike warnings. He said Wafer could make submissions to parole board for admission to the methadone programme.

- NZPA