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Home / Rotorua Daily Post

'Persistent' Rotorua shoplifter jailed for stealing to fund drug habit

Kelly Makiha
By Kelly Makiha
Multimedia Journalist·Rotorua Daily Post·
30 Sep, 2022 07:00 PM4 mins to read

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Persistent shoplifter Tamati Taoho was sentenced in the Rotorua District Court yesterday. Photo / Andrew Warner

Persistent shoplifter Tamati Taoho was sentenced in the Rotorua District Court yesterday. Photo / Andrew Warner



An "unbelievably persistent" shoplifter addicted to synthetic cannabis who lived in emergency housing hit stores sometimes up to three times a day, leaving with trolley-loads and bags full of goods valued at hundreds of dollars.

On one occasion, Tamati Taoho bowled over an elderly woman at a supermarket checkout after he was approached by staff as he tried to escape with a bag full of stolen food.

Taoho has been jailed for 11 months after pleading guilty to 16 charges, mainly for serious shoplifting that he committed at shops in the Rotorua Central Mall area.

Taoho appeared in the Rotorua District Court via audio visual link on Thursday for sentencing before Judge Tony Snell.

He was given leave to apply for home detention but under the strict instruction from Judge Snell that it was only to be served at a drug rehabilitation centre.

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Taoho's offences include two charges of shoplifting goods valued between $500 and $1000 and 12 charges of shoplifting goods valued at less than $500.

He also pleaded guilty to charges of breaching supervision orders given to him following family violence offending and one charge of trespass.

Judge Snell said Taoho, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, had his benefit cancelled because he "pocketed money" that was supposed to be for his emergency housing. That information came from a pre-sentence report given to the judge as part of the sentencing process.

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The report also said he had a synthetic drug habit.

"This (shoplifting) wasn't to feed your family, it was to fund your drug habit," the judge said.

Judge Snell said Taoho was previously sentenced to intensive supervision for a range of charges including family violence but he failed to report to probation and completed none of the courses offered to him.

He was trespassed from The Warehouse in April but went back there the same month and tried to steal items.

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Between June and July, he committed several shoplifting offences at Countdown Rotorua Central, The Warehouse, Farmers and Briscoes.

Judge Snell outlined each charge, detailing how Taoho would take trolleys into the stores and fill them with items including meat and alcohol. Sometimes he would then fill his bag with the items and leave the store and other times he would go to self-checkouts and pay for less expensive items in his trolley but would fail to pay for the hundreds of dollars worth of other items.

On July 30, he was at Countdown Rotorua Central with his partner and was confronted by store security.

Judge Snell said a scuffle ensued and Taoho pushed between security to allow his partner to escape. During the scuffle, Taoho knocked over an elderly customer before leaving with $625 worth of alcohol and meat.

Judge Snell said Taoho had 34 previous convictions, many for non-compliance with court orders.

He told his pre-sentence report writer he didn't like prison and didn't want to go back.

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"You had the same epiphany last time you were in prison. You know how to say the right words but you don't know how to follow up."

Judge Snell said Taoho's victims - the stores - had to put their prices up for customers to accommodate the losses from "people like you (Taoho)" stealing from them "virtually every day".

Judge Snell said he needed to consider Taoho's reintegration into the community and hoped if he could get control of his drug habit, he might not offend.

"When I look at your shoplifting it has been unbelievably persistent, sometimes two or three times in a day."

He said it was also of concern he was starting to use violence when caught because in his earlier offending he would hand the items back when caught.

When the judge referred to the incident where the elderly woman was knocked over, Taoho laughed.

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"You may well laugh but it isn't funny," Judge Snell said.

The judge then instructed the court registrar to mute the audio-visual link so Taoho couldn't keep interrupting.

Judge Snell sentenced him to 11 months' jail but said he had leave to apply for home detention at a fulltime residential facility for drug treatment. When he said this, Taoho could be seen on the audio-visual screen jumping up and down excitedly.

"I don't think you are that willing to change but I'm going to give you options to change... I want you to get over the alcohol and drug issues you have."

He also cancelled his previous sentence of community work.

"I want him to come out of rehab without anything hanging over his head."

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