Christchurch teen robber who got pregnant 'on the run' jailed after crime spree

Saffron Mokotupu, now aged 20, admitted charges from a crime spree last year. Photo / NZME

A teenager used a taxi to move between her synthetics-fuelled robbery scenes.

Saffron Tina Jules Mokotupu was jailed for two years and nine months but she may be out of jail in time to give birth to the baby she conceived while on the run.

She is now 20, and struggled with tears during her sentencing by Christchurch District Court Judge Tom Gilbert.

He wished her luck as she began the sentence, but made it clear she would have to perform well and arrange support in the community if she was going to be released before the birth.

She spent time in custody on remand, and will be due for release in about four months, when she will be seven months' pregnant.

She had been on electronically monitored bail - Judge Gilbert said it had been granted "generously" - but on the morning of an earlier scheduled sentencing she cut off her electronic bracelet and absconded. While on the run, she became pregnant.

Defence counsel Rahul George said she had had a tragic upbringing, and urged that she be allowed home detention. She had good family support and was now willing to face the consequences of her offending.

Judge Gilbert said she had struggled with the use of synthetic drugs, and was assessed as having made poor choices about boyfriends, drug use, and associates.

She appeared for sentence after admitting two charges of aggravated robbery, robbery, attempted robbery, attempted theft, unlawfully taking a car, dishonestly using a bank card, and dangerous driving.

The offending took place over a few days in May 2021.

It began with a raid on a petrol station in Centaurus Rd, and then another one in Bealey Ave, where she made the attendant think she was holding a firearm. Cash and tobacco were taken.

She robbed a dairy of cash and a cellphone and then tried to rob a petrol station, but the attendant set off an alarm. She travelled between these scenes in a taxi she called on a cellphone taken in a robbery where she had threatened the shop assistant with a broken bottle.

She then tried to rob a Linwood supermarket, even while a member of the public was trying to talk her out of it.

Mokotupu drove a car through several intersections and red lights at speed and ran into a car which then spun and crashed into a shop front. There was $10,000 damage to the car.
She stole an Uber while the driver was delivering a food order. The car was never found. She dishonestly used the bank cards from the wallet she found inside.

Mokotupu was seen in the pre-sentence reports as having limited insight and remorse. A psychological report described her as "street smart in some ways, but quite naive in others."

Judge Gilbert gave her a substantial reduction of her prison term for her guilty pleas, her age, her background, and her pregnancy.

He also disqualified her from driving for six months. No reparations payments were feasible and no order was made.