A Rotorua woman stole more than $50,000 worth of property to fuel her methamphetamine habit.
Jaime Ani Russell, 20, unemployed, yesterday pleaded guilty in the Rotorua District Court to 17 charges of burglary between October 5 and December 6 last year.
Police said Russell targeted rural properties,mainly in Rotorua but also in Te Puke, Kawerau and Taihape. Many of the burglaries were committed during the daytime when the owners were out. In all of the burglaries Russell used her car and she was helped by one to three associates. The property she stole included alcohol, food, firearms, jewellery, clothing, televisions, PlayStations, stereos, computers, other electronic equipment, an outboard motor and chainsaws.
In one burglary at Hamurana, Russell and her associates ransacked the interior, stealing $5800 worth of property. They used a spade to smash a gun rack trying to free three firearms, with little success.
Russell and her associates then attempted to remove the firearms with such force the shotgun and two rifles broke in half.
She entered homes by forcing or smashing windows and in one case through an open ranch slider.
When Russell was caught by police she listed all the homes she had burgled. She said she had fallen in with a bad crowd and had done the burglaries to fuel a methamphetamine habit. The majority of the property had not been recovered and was unlikely to be. Judge Phillip Cooper granted Russell bail but told her not to take that as any indication of her prison sentence.
He requested pre-sentence and reparation reports and victim impact statements to assist him in sentencing Russell on February 27.
