A Rotorua woman who arranged for her ex-boyfriend to rob her workplace and then called the police on him has been sentenced to one year of home detention.
Ana Tangimoe Gavin, 23, appeared in the Rotorua District Court before Judge Thomas Ingram yesterday over a burglary at After Dark Cabaret bar on Pukuatua St and making a false statement to police.
Originally, she and former partner Bertram Sturley, 20, were jointly charged with aggravated robbery but she pleaded guilty to the reduced charge after the Crown accepted she did not know a weapon was involved. Sturley has been sentenced to eight months' home detention after serving six months in custody while on remand.
Last December, Gavin told him there would be $5000 cash to take from the bar she managed and they arranged to split the money. She contacted Sturley and told him to rob the bar at a prearranged time when she would be the only staff member working.
Gavin's duties included cashing up and securing the tills at the end of the night and opening the safe in the mornings.
On December 21 at 10.10pm, Gavin rang Sturley while working a late shift and asked him to come and rob the bar.
Sturley agreed but arranged to do it at 9am the next day. He was told she would be the only staff member on site and there would be $5000 and pokie money in cupboards. They planned to meet up at Sturley's house and split the money.
Armed with a steak knife, Sturley waited down the road from the bar, sending text messages to Gavin, saying he was going to hold her up so that it would look legitimate.
Her lawyer Rob Vigor-Brown said yesterday the plan was for Sturley to go through the gaming room, grab the till and go through the back exit. Instead Sturley, armed with a knife, came in and grabbed the till and discovered the back door was locked, forcing him to go out the front.
Two people were playing the pokie machines and thought it was a genuine robbery. They blocked the door to prevent Sturley from leaving and he shoulder charged a woman to get her out of his way, injuring her arm. He was later found by police in Kuirau Park.
"The plan went wrong on the outset because of [Gavin] and his incompetence," Judge Ingram said.
"Instead of $5000 in the till there was only $150 and you were supposed to unlock the back door but you forgot to do that.
"Every employer needs to know that you can't be trusted - you set it up to rob your employer. There was premeditation, planning and abuse of the trust they placed in you."
Mr Vigor-Brown said his client called the police because Sturley had came with a knife.
The pre-sentence report stated Gavin showed no remorse or insight into her actions and showed a lack of concern for abusing the trust of her former employer.
Judge Ingram sentenced Gavin to 12 months' home detention for the burglary and 300 hours of community work and warned her she would be jailed if she breached the conditions of her sentence.
Gavin was sentenced to a concurrent 100 hours of community work for making a false statement to police.
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