A family dispute over a car which led to a suburban standover, witnessed by two children, has landed two brothers in prison.
George Junior Tahiri (29), Ozwall Izack Tahiri (25) and Nikola Irene Stewart (28) appeared before the Dunedin District Court yesterday in relation to the incident from December 22 last year.
The roots of the discord lay in the preceding weeks with the purchase of a Mazda vehicle, which the victim — Stewart’s sister — then advertised for sale just weeks after receiving it.
This caused tension because their mother had paid for the car and the debt had not yet been repaid.
Stewart and the Tahiri brothers turned up at the victim’s Dunedin home, tooled up with a large red pipe wrench, a screwdriver and a battery-operated drill. They demanded the keys to the Mazda during a confrontation in the street, the court heard, which was witnessed by the victim’s two young children.
Meanwhile, George Tahiri went on to the property and found a motorbike, owned by another resident.
"He began drilling out and smashing the security locking mechanism ... in an unsuccessful effort to take it, causing significant damage to the wheel lock," a police summary said.
Ozwall Tahiri was unable to assist and they abandoned the attempts.
Again, they turned their attention to the car, shouting at the victim who eventually relinquished the keys.
The group drove away in the vehicle.
Things got worse for George Tahiri when police turned up at his home on Christmas Eve to execute a search warrant.
He was spoken to and placed under arrest but before he could be loaded into the police car, sprinted off.
Officers found him half an hour later, a kilometre away.
He did not want to spend Christmas behind bars, he explained.
Counsel Rhona Daysh said George Tahiri had spent most of his adult life in prison, which was no surprise given his upbringing, which she described as "like something out of Once Were Warriors".
"His father was a mobster and expected him to follow in footsteps ... He was a mobster in training and that led to criminality just because he wanted to fit in," she said.
Judge David Robinson said George Tahiri’s recent withdrawal from the gang showed "tremendous courage".
"You now realise, being a dad yourself, you didn’t have the father figure you needed, and you realise you want and need to have a better relationship with your kids," he said.
The judge, however, noted the trio minimised the crimes.
Stewart claimed the vigilante-style standover was justified and Judge Robinson said he was "concerned" that she expressed no remorse for the potential impact on the children who saw what unfolded.
She was convicted of demanding with menaces, and sentenced to seven months’ home detention and 150 hours’ community work.
Her partner, Ozwall Tahiri, got 23 and a-half months’ imprisonment for demanding with menaces and burglary, while George Tahiri was jailed for 32 and a-half months on eight charges, with several unrelated to the incident.
