'This is no simple shoplifting': Kmart robber jailed after violent attack on staff

One of the women who violently attacked Kmart staff in an incident in April - punching one woman in the head three times - has been jailed.

Kitia Lucy Toimata, 24, and Sharice Walker-Grace each filled up trolleys full of goods at the central Hamilton Kmart before attempting to leave without paying on the night of April 16 this year, when three staff intervened.

The pair used their trolleys as weapons and pushed them into the staff members, while Walker-Grace grabbed a pair of metal tongs and swung them at them.

One of the staff tried to stop Toimata from leaving so she grabbed her by the hair and punched her three times in the head.

It was only when a member of the public intervened that the pair left.

However, they returned again shortly afterwards, and Walker-Grace went up to a staff member and stabbed him in the back and tried to stab others.

They then left with four boxes of goods into a waiting vehicle. A staff member's cellphone was also taken in the altercation.

Toimata was sentenced in the Hamilton District Court today for her part in what happened, along with a litany of other charges including drink driving, assault of an Uber driver and two incidents of shoplifting and assault.

The court heard how Toimata lost control of her car and crashed in the car park of the Waikato Table Tennis Club in Edgecumbe St, Hamilton, at 10.21pm on June 18 last year.

She blew 816mcg. The legal limit is 250mcg.

When questioned by police, she said her friends dared her to drive down the road.

Kitia Toimata, 24, appeared in the Hamilton District Court today for her part in the K Mart attack in April 16, this year. Photo / Mike Scott.

She was on bail, when at 4pm on September 19, last year she and a friend went into the Glenview New World and put items, including bottles of wine, into their handbags before walking out without paying.

She was approached by a staff member and refused to hand over her bag, instead punching him in the face, cutting his lip.

Judge John McDonald remarked that the staff member wouldn't have tried to grab her bag if she hadn't been "pinching from the store".

She was bailed again but on November 19, last year, she ordered an Uber for herself and a friend. When they were dropped off at the property and the driver refused to drive her up the driveway, she got angry and put her arm around his neck and "throttled him".

She was arrested and bailed again when on February 2, she filled up a trolley full of groceries, worth $291, at Te Rapa Countdown before walking out without paying.

Toimata's counsel Stephen Taylor accepted the seriousness of her offending and that she had a history that stretched into the Youth Court.

Sharice Walker-Grace, left, and Kitia Toimata, in the dock in the Hamilton District Court today. Walker-Grace's sentencing was adjourned until December. Photo / Mike Scott

However, despite that he hoped that the judge could still reach a sentence of home detention and noted a cultural report which detailed her upbringing and the loss of her mother aged 3.

Her father remarried when she was 10, which was around the time she began stealing.

He said she had not breached while spending the last five months electronically-monitored bail and instead had been focusing on her two children "and being a mother".

Taylor urged she spend a sentence at home with her children "rather than sitting in prison for simply a matter of months".

However, Judge McDonald said the offending was too serious and took the Kmart charges as her lead offences.

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"You and your friend were off on yet another shoplifting job. And that is your job.

"You and your mate planned what you were going to do. You had a car waiting."

He said the offending was a joint enterprise and although she didn't stab anyone, "you were each supporting each other".

"You were also becoming violent, punching a person in the face."

Judge McDonald said he couldn't understand why the pair simply didn't "take your hands off your trolley" when asked to stop instead of using them as weapons.

"This is no simple shoplifting."

He took a starting point of 15 months before adding various uplifts for the additional charges, ending up at 36 months.

After applying discounts he came to an end term of 25 months' jail - just one short of qualifying for home detention.

Walker-Grace's sentencing was adjourned until December.