Pashion Akenihia Kumeroa Ramsay, 25, has been jailed after a $100,000 Facebook fraud.
As a young mum sat on her couch, feeding her 3-week-old baby, three gunshots were fired into her home, with one bullet narrowly missing her.
Pashion Akenihia Kumeroa Ramsay, the woman who used a cut-down .22 rifle to fire the shots into the Ngāruawāhia property in February this year, was in the grips of a meth addiction at the time.
She had also committed an approximate $100,000 Facebook fraud, in which she stole eight vehicles, cash and an iPhone.
The woman’s partner was one of Ramsay’s fraud victims who had tried to warn others of Ramsay when it became apparent he was being ripped off.
Three days after Ramsay shot at their house, she returned and fired more shots into the property.
The first time, the woman heard the shots, and thinking she was going to be killed, ran with her baby to the bathroom and jumped into the bathtub.
The second time Ramsay shot at the house, a bullet pierced the kitchen window before landing in a wall 10 metres away.
This month, Ramsay appeared in the Hamilton District Court for sentencing on shooting and fraud charges.
The court heard she would “buy” vehicles from people through Facebook, by showing them a fake money transfer.
The fraud left some victims having to pay off vehicles they no longer owned.
The victims whose house Ramsay shot at were further impacted by having to move, out of fear that she would return.
Ramsay also admitted drug offending charges, and trying to smuggle drugs and cigarettes to her Mongrel Mob member father, Clayton Wilson, in Whanganui prison.
The court heard Ramsay’s offending started in October last year.
After adopting various aliases, including “Jus Tash”, “Yukno Yurit”, “Paul White”, and “Marjorityy Rulezz”, she contacted victims who had vehicles for sale on Facebook.
She visited their homes and bought the vehicles by showing a fake money transfer, which appeared to the victims that the payment had been sent to their bank accounts.
Ramsay would drive off in their vehicles and ignore the victims’ attempts to contact her once they realised they had been duped.
On February 2, Ramsay went to a victim’s home, driving a Ford Ranger she’d just stolen, to buy the victim’s Honda TRX quad bike for $4500.
While “waiting for the money to clear”, she asked the victim to help him load the bike on the ute, then took off.
Ramsay’s most serious offending was the shooting.
She and an unknown associate met with the young mum and her partner and negotiated a sale price of $32,000 for his vehicle.
Ramsay told him she’d transferred the money and sent him a screenshot as confirmation of payment, but explained there would be a delay as he was with a different bank.
She then drove off in the ute.
Soon after, he made a Facebook post warning others of Ramsay’s behaviour.
On February 12, as the victim was in Huntly looking for his ute, he spotted Ramsay’s vehicle parked outside some shops.
He confronted her, recording her, but she denied being Pashion Ramsay and drove off.
The following day, the victim and his partner were home with their three-week-old daughter.
Ramsay drove past and fired three shots from her moving vehicle.
One shot pierced the living room window, narrowly missing his partner, who was sitting on the couch feeding their child.
Three days later, Ramsay drove past again, firing another shot into the house, which went through the kitchen window, travelling about 10m before hitting a wall.
Police arrested her the next day and found a .22 rifle in her car, “loaded, cocked and ready to fire”.
There was also .22 ammunition in the driver’s door armrest and centre console.
A Gucci bag that was being held by a young relative of Ramsay’s had Ramsay’s driver’s licence, cash, meth, and more .22 ammunition.
In relation to the Whanganui prison smuggling attempt, Ramsay had admitted conspiring with her father and another woman to take in cannabis, a cellphone and tobacco.
During conversations, Ramsay and her father, Clayton Wilson, spoke of meth, cannabis, and cellphones using the code words, “nanny Sonja’s”, “Evo bumpers”, and “car parts”.
Wilson told Ramsay what he wanted her to organise, including the logistics of the contraband and sorting payments.
Ramsay then got a 43-year-old female associate to take it in.
However, greeting her on arrival was a drug dog, which, unsurprisingly, indicated she had drugs.
Seven separate packages were found, which included 12.6g of meth, 28g of cannabis bud, a cellphone, and four packets of tobacco.
In court, Ramsay’s counsel, Gerard Walsh, urged the judge to issue a decent discount for his client’s upbringing, stating her parents “didn’t help matters”.
“That’s an understatement,” Judge Garry Collin replied.
Walsh said Ramsay had to care for her sisters after her mother died during childbirth.
“That comes with a heavy burden for a 16-year-old who wasn’t as confident in the world as she would have hoped.”
She was also remorseful and realised the toll her actions had on the victims, especially those whom she shot at.
Judge Collin said it was fortunate no one was killed.
He said the victim was selling his ute as he had lost his job and wasn’t able to keep paying the bill for it.
The offending had left him angry, frustrated and depressed. He and his partner wanted Ramsay sent to prison.
Another victim told NZME that he was a self-employed contractor when he agreed to swap a vehicle with Ramsay, along with giving her $3500 cash.
Despite carrying out checks on the vehicle some weeks later and attempting to sell it, armed police surrounded his car in an Auckland street while he waited for a prospective buyer and arrested him.
“This was extremely traumatic and humiliating,” he said.
“I had unknowingly been drawn into serious offending through manipulative and calculated actions by the offender.
“The financial, emotional, and psychological impact of this offending has been long-lasting, deeply affecting my wellbeing, independence, and ability to move forward.”
In sentencing Ramsay, Judge Collin acknowledged not only her upbringing but also her teen years, which saw her instantly become the carer to a 1-day-old baby and several other siblings.
She used alcohol, cannabis, and meth from a young age, while the cars she stole were used to fund her P addiction.
She had also been the victim of her father’s violence, as had her mother, the judge said.
“It’s probably difficult to imagine a more tragic, difficult, and challenging childhood, teen years, and young adulthood,” Judge Collin said.
On 20 charges, mostly relating to obtaining by deception and drugs, Judge Collin took a starting point of 46 months’ imprisonment.
He then made an allowance for her upbringing and remorse before jailing her for two years and eight months.
As for the $107,000 reparation, Judge Collin declined to order it, saying the chances of her repaying the victims were “nil and frankly unrealistic”.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.