Two young men who were seen as role models in their communities have gone to jail for the armed robberies of two dairies.
Christchurch District Court Judge Jane Farish told them: “It is quite inexplicable how you went from being god-fearing young men, who had obtained employment, to now being in a situation where I have to sentence you to lengthy terms of imprisonment.”
Joshua Felise Nuu, 20, went to jail for two years seven months for his greater role, and Iosefa Filifili, now 19 but 18 at the time of the robberies, was jailed for two years three months.
Family members called out messages of love as the pair were led away to the cells, and they were in tears outside the courtroom afterwards.
The families will pay back the $4600 reparations for the cigarettes and cash the men got in one of the robberies, and Judge Farish said she knew the families would hold them accountable to repay their debts.
She reduced the sentences because they had handed themselves in, their remorse, their offer of reparations, and their guilty pleas. But she said they still had to go to jail for their serious offending.
The pair had admitted charges of armed robbery, and assault with intent to rob.
Defence counsel Craig Ruane asked that Nuu be given credit for his “minimal” record of previous offending, for handing himself in to the police, making full admissions about the robberies, and pleading guilty as soon as possible.
“This offending has come as a surprise to people who have dealings with him – it is completely out of character,” said Mr Ruane.
Counsel for Filifili, Serina Bailey, said her client hoped the sentence would fall within the range where home detention could be considered – under two years’ jail. She said a prison term for a first offender could mean they ended the sentence with worse attitudes than when they began.
The offending had been a shock to his family, and Filifili now realised how serious the offending was, she said.
Judge Farish said Nuu had been affected by the death of someone very close, and had been unable to talk about how he was feeling. He turned to alcohol and synthetic cannabis and that led him, with his friend, to commit the two robberies.
Huu had a hammer and Filifili, who was the look-out, had an axe when they robbed a Dallington convenience store of cigarettes and cash totalling $4600 in January.
They both went into a second store, a dairy in New Brighton, on January 25. The lone woman shop assistant was terrified when confronted with two armed men and was injured when Nuu grazed her inner forearm with his hammer, leaving a 15cm long scrape.
The men fled empty handed when the woman’s mother came out from the back of the store.
The men had only disguised themselves with sunglasses and handed themselves in to the police when security camera photographs were released by the police and published in the media.
Judge Farish said the men had good family support, came from positive, pro-social backgrounds, had achieved well at sports, and attended church regularly. “Up until January you were seen as role models within your community.”
The post ‘Role models’ jailed for dairy robberies appeared first on Courtnews.co.nz.