Alicia Te Papa was sentenced to 10 and a half months' jail on 12 charges of shoplifting when she appeared in the Hamilton District Court last Monday. Photo / Paul Estcourt
A high-risk, recidivist shoplifter was so determined to steal perfume that she snatched it from under the arm of a Farmers shop assistant.
Alicia Te Papa then went to leave, but a security guard managed to grab back the bag of fragrances.
Undeterred, the Hamilton woman simply ran over and grabbed them back, dropping one bottle worth $310 in the process, but still managing to take off with bottles worth $570.
It was one of 12 incidents of shoplifting that she carried out either alone or with others between May and February this year.
Now Judge Tini Clark has handed her more jail time after she appeared for sentencing in the Hamilton District Court on Monday last week.
Te Papa is listed as a “high-risk recidivist retail crime offender” by the police National Retail Investigation Support Unit.
Between May 22 last year and February 4 this year, she was involved in 12 separate shoplifting incidents around Hamilton, either at various Woolworths supermarkets, Rebel Sport, Farmers or Kmart.
Her thefts were basic. She would walk in, grab a basket or trolley, put a few things in, and then march out without paying.
On a couple of occasions, things got hectic, and on one occasion, she went back and stole more on the same day.
Even if she was asked to stop or to put the groceries back, she’d ignore the staff and keep walking.
On May 25, she put a basket in a trolley, filled it with $400 worth of groceries and walked out. Staff activated the trolley lock, but she grabbed the shopping basket and continued.
In Farmers on July 16, she went to the fragrance section and asked to smell various brands.
She tried to buy a few, but when her card was declined, she reached over the counter and snatched them from under the arm of the staff member.
A security guard went over to grab the items, but Te Papa snatched them back.
In the process, she dropped one bottle of perfume worth $310, but stole others totalling $570.
Her last hurrah, on February 4, was at Kmart in Te Rapa, where she grabbed a washing basket and put in a variety of items, including a pillow, cosmetics, towels and bed linen, worth around $200 and walked out.
The total value of the items she stole in her spree was about $3800.
Te Papa’s counsel, Catriona Kunac, said her client accepted she would be going to prison, but urged Judge Clark to allow her leave to apply for home detention at a rehabilitation facility.
Te Papa had been in custody because she breached her electronically monitored (EM) bail by interfering with her bracelet, and again by missing her court date.
“I appreciate she breached her EM bail,” Kunac put to the judge. “She was on [EM] bail for 141 days. She has been making attempts herself to look into rehabilitative options.”
But Judge Clark appeared to show little interest in that prospect.
“Explain to me why I should do anything less than imprisonment.
“In 2024, she went to prison. In 2024, she continued to offend and, in 2025, she continued to offend.
“You know, this is a difficult sell to me, counsel, because there’s been no stopping.
“I can’t see any level of motivation here, first to rehabilitate and second to comply.”
Kunac explained that Te Papa had also spent 95 days in custody and had several personal issues to take into account, including her mother dying, and being a victim of domestic violence, which resulted in her giving birth early to her first child.
“How does all this link into the fact that she’s a thief?” Judge Clark asked.
“Just help me with that ... how does that translate into ‘Therefore, I’m going to help myself to things I know don’t belong to me’, and ‘I’m going to make victims of these various businesses’. How does that all link together?”
Kunac said Te Papa had been “very upfront” with her.
“She doesn’t really have a good excuse. She does believe there is kleptomania there, but she hasn’t been formally diagnosed.
“There is mention of her stealing to help the children in the [pre-sentence] report, but she also accepts that it’s not an excuse.”
“And it doesn’t help the children if she’s in prison,” Judge Clark replied.
The judge then turned to Te Papa and told her she’d be going to jail.
“This will in the end be a short term of imprisonment for you, and I think you understand why that is.”
She noted that her offending was not of the worst kind, and it didn’t involve any violence, but instead “some determination, such as taking back the items which had been confiscated”.
Judge Clark noted Te Papa’s explanation that she offended for the sake of her children, but said it did not appear that the bottles of perfume were for her children.
“It couldn’t be suggested that that was for the benefit of a hungry family or anything along those lines, and that same type of behaviour really spilled into this year, in January and February.”
After jailing her for 10 and a half months, Judge Clark told Te Papa she wasn’t sure what was driving her offending, but said it was a shame to see her in the dock.
“Because I’m sure that there are other things that you could be doing, including working towards reuniting and caring for your children, but instead you are here.
“You can’t be proud of what you are doing.”
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.