Friend 'deserves dobbing in'

A convicted Northland dairy robber dobbed in his friend and alleged accomplice because he thought he too needed to be punished for the crime, a court has heard.

William Charles Stone, 23, decided to become a "nark" and appeared in the Whangarei District Court as a Crown witness against Nicholas Pleasants, who is facing a charge of aggravated robbery.

The charge is in relation to an aggravated robbery at the Paparoa Dairy on September 10, 2008.

Armed with a steel pitchfork and a pair of garden shears, Stone and two others entered the dairy about 7.40pm, approaching the owner, his wife and their 10-year-old son.

The victims ran to the back of their dairy and Stone's associates ripped the cash register off the main counter, handed it over to him and fled.

Carrying the cash register, Stone ran through a flax bush in the dark, slipped and fell down a small bank. He lost the cash register and hid along the river bank.

A police dog tracked him down. He admitted the offence and was jailed for 2 years in December of that year.

In court this week Stone denied suggestions by defence lawyer Chris Muston that being a nark would benefit him.

Stone said Pleasants left him standing in knee-deep "****", holding the till and deserved to be named. "I am doing it [giving evidence] because he deserves it. I am copping everything on the chin, he should be doing the same."

Stone said there was no point in lying after being arrested and, being a first-time offender, he hadn't understood the seriousness of the charge that followed.

Pleasants, who worked on a farm, texted him about 3pm on the day of the robbery and asked him to come to his farm cottage for a "deal", Stone said.

Stone said there was another person at the milking shed when he arrived who he suspected was the third person to be involved in the robbery.

Mr Muston pointed out that when Detective Sam Kemp spoke to Stone after his arrest, Stone said he would tell everything about the robbery but wouldn't name his co-offenders.

When put to him by Mr Muston that three people robbing a dairy was incredible, he replied it was stupid.

Stone told police after his arrest that he decided to rob the dairy because he was going through a hard time and needed money.

The week-long trial is before Judge David Wilson, QC.

- APN