Mother, daughter sentenced for shoplifting

Megan Valerie Muir and her daughter, Joelene Ngahuia Harris, were jointly charged with two counts of shoplifting from the Countdown supermarket and Gibson Interiors. Photo / File

It was a case of like mother like daughter in the Greymouth District Court yesterday as two members of the same family were convicted of shoplifting.

Megan Valerie Muir and her daughter, Joelene Ngahuia Harris, were jointly charged with two counts of shoplifting from the Countdown supermarket and Gibson Interiors. Both were sentenced to two months' community detention, six months' supervision and 120 hours of community work.

Lawyer Richard Bodle said Muir had an addiction to stealing, which she was finding "very hard to overcome" as she had an "irresistible urge to take stuff".

However, for the latest offending she had ended up assisting her daughter.

Although it was important that the sentencing provided a deterrent, he asked the court to not impose a custodial sentence.

The amounts involved in the thefts were "trifling". Muir was "focused on not taking stuff again", and would get professional help with her addiction to stealing.

Lawyer Eymard Bradley said Harris had 10 previous dishonesty-related convictions, but because she was now on the "cusp of prison", that was making her "think more carefully about not offending in this way again".

Harris had health issues, which made her "more vulnerable to the influence of her mother".

Judge Brian Callaghan said it was not often he saw a mother and daughter charged with the same offence.

"When one talks about like mother like daughter, one doesn't expect to be saying it in the context of this offending."

However, the judge said Muir had shown some positive attributes, such as how she had cared for a friend who had lost a close relative in the Pike River Mine disaster. He therefore decided against imposing a custodial sentence.

"While the starting point of prison can clearly be justified for both of you, I don't think that that's the appropriate outcome here. Quite clearly a community-based outcome can be imposed."

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