Woman involved in serious robbery in Hamilton wins appeal on sentence

The victims were held at this Rotokauri, Hamilton house against their will overnight in January 2021. Photo / Google Maps

A woman involved in a robbery in which she helped hold a group of young people in a Hamilton house for several hours has had four months shaved off her sentence on appeal.

In September last year, Shannon Jenifer Avery, of Nelson, was jailed for two years and eight months on charges of robbery and assault with a weapon after an incident that occurred overnight in Rotokauri on January 16, 2021.

Avery, through her counsel Melissa James, appealed her sentence on grounds Justice Pheroze Jagose’s starting point of four and a half years was too high and the discounts weren’t sufficient.

Avery, 40, and her co-offender Troy Mudford pleaded guilty to lesser charges of robbery and assault with a weapon at the beginning of their second trial after their first trial was aborted.

The third offender, Maxine McWaters, admitted one charge of robbery.

James submitted in the Court of Appeal in June that Avery’s culpability was the same as McWaters’ and their starting points ought to have been the same, with a six-month uplift for the extra charge and offending while subject to sentence.

Crown counsel Rebecca Mann submitted the sentence should not be varied.

The Court of Appeal judges inferred it was James’ submission that Justice Jagose had “double-counted” Avery’s violence in setting his starting point.

They accepted James’ argument on both counts, so reduced the starting point by six months to three years and six months’ jail, before adding another six months for the assault.

However, the Court of Appeal declined to increase discounts for personal factors from 20 per cent to 30 per cent, stating 20 per cent was “getting to the upper level of discount that is generally afforded for such matters in offending of this kind”.

Avery’s original sentence was quashed and replaced with one of two years and four months’ prison.

Mudford was jailed for two years and 11 months, and McWaters was sentenced to two years and five months’ imprisonment.

The armed robbery

In January 2021, the offenders arrived at a Rotokauri house before the four victims arrived in their car.

An “encounter” had happened the day before, and the group laid in wait for the four victims at the rural Hamilton address, where they then stood over the two men and two women.

The group took items from their victims including jewellery, handbags and phone cards. They also demanded they hand over and reset their cellphones.

The victims were then ordered to go inside the house, and some testified they were assaulted and forced to strip naked and hug during the ordeal.

They were kept inside the house against their will until dawn.

Mudford struck one victim in the back of the head with a hammer.

At one point, Avery held a knife to a victim’s waist in a vehicle as they met her mother to get money.

Justice Jagose noted the robbery had a profound impact on two of the victims, causing them “severe anxiety and distress”.

They lost jobs, income, their home and custody of their child and had to move towns.

Another victim had become “severely introverted”, caused by the “risk you presented to her life”, he said.

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for eight years and been a journalist for 19.