A young mother’s evidence against co-offenders in two dairy robberies has led to a home detention sentence being granted at her Christchurch District Court sentencing.
The other two offenders received jail terms after the armed robberies of dairies in Hoon Hay and Addington where Larissa Rose Stevens was the getaway driver.
Stevens, 21, has the care of a two-year-old child who will be with her on a 10-month home detention sentence.
Judge Jane Farish said she was satisfied that Stevens had enough support in place to be able to cope with the home detention sentence while caring for the child.
She also has to pay $936 as her share of the reparations, and will have six months of post-detention conditions when she must attend treatment and counselling to address her offending.
She has no other convictions, and reports and references told the judge she was making of good job of looking after the child. People who were aware of the offending spoke of her in “glowing terms”.
Judge Farish said the co-offenders were known to have gang connections. She accepted that Stevens did not know at the time of the first robbery that the male co-offender was carrying an imitation firearm, but she did know about it at the time of the second robbery, later the same day –August 31, 2015.
Judge Farish noted Stevens had given evidence at trial and had placed herself “in a very difficult position”.
“You have chosen a path away from these past associates,” said the judge, deciding that home detention could be granted instead of a prison term.
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