A senior gang member who blackmailed a Dunedin man out of up to $250,000 within two years has been denied parole.
33-year-old Muru Muru Taana-Andrews made his first appearance before the Parole Board last month, which said the Otago Corrections Facility prisoner remained an undue risk because he had not undergone any rehabilitation while behind bars.
The Mongrel Mob member was jailed for four years and one month on a slew of charges last year, the most serious of which stemmed from the prolonged blackmail of a retail worker.
Taana-Andrews approached his victim late in 2016 and claimed he had a "compromising photograph'' of the man and a young girl from the company's CCTV system.
If the gang leadership were to hear about it, they would take violent action against him, he told the victim.