As well as eight burglary charges, she was sentenced on charges of using a document for pecuniary advantage - for using their bank cards in mostly paywave purchases, receiving property, and theft, for offending between April 9, 2021 and when her Thames home was finally searched on October 11, last year.
It was there police found her in possession of a woman’s stolen purse containing a number of cards, but she refused to reveal how she ended up with it.
Asked about her actions, Dunster said she had “done things to pay bills”.
The 34-year-old’s lawyer, Mark Sturm, urged Judge Noel Cocurullo in the Hamilton District Court to follow a pre-sentence report recommendation of intensive supervision.
Alternatively, he suggested he could reach a level where Dunster would qualify for home detention and asked that he allow her leave to apply.
Sturm described her offending as a “fall from grace”. Before turning 30, she had never offended and was a teacher.
Dunster, who appeared via audio visual link from prison, had since “succumbed to addiction”, he said.
Before going into custody three months ago, she had never been in prison and it had been hard, however, she was adjusting.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Mark Ransley said the victims were all aged in their 70s and 80s and the offending had a “significant” effect on them.
The lengthy summary of facts reveal six of her eight burglaries occurred before midday, one as early as 5.45am.
In one burglary, she crawled underneath a garage door which was left open about a metre off the ground, other times she broke into vehicles to steal possessions.
Sometimes, once in possession of a card, her spending would be frenetic.
After breaking into one central Thames home at 7.15am on August 2, 2021, Dunster began using the victim’s paywave at the local Four Square supermarket by 7.30am, clocking up four purchases around town before 8am and totalling 21 that day, with the last at 11.01pm at the Gull Service Station.
On that one occasion she spent about $770, however the most one single victim lost was $1273.99, involving 38 transactions in Thames between August 5 and September 1, last year.
On one occasion, Dunster was in Turangi and spent $213.38 on a victim’s card until it was cancelled. She told police she found it on the ground outside a local health centre.
Aggravating her situation, Judge Cocurullo said, was her 2022 offending while on bail for earlier burglaries.
Her criminal history wasn’t extensive; just four dishonesty convictions for which she received supervision both times.
“It’s serious offending but the way the burglaries happened seem to be an entry without any great sophistication to it.”
There was no prospect of reparation and after issuing discounts for guilty pleas, and her addiction issue, Judge Cocurullo arrived at a jail term of three years and five months.
