Dean Samuel Hira (49) got away with $1120 in the hold-up of the Bank of New Zealand branch in Mosgiel on February 2.
When he appeared in the Dunedin District Court this week it was revealed Hira had been jailed for four years in the 1990s for manslaughter, after leaving a Christchurch nightclub drunk, running a red light in the inner city and crashing into a taxi.
The cab driver was thrown from his car and killed, while passengers in both vehicles suffered injuries including fractures and head wounds.
Along with a charge of aggravated robbery, Hira also admitted charges of blackmail and receiving, as well as a slew of driving and drugs charges from between January and May this year.
The court heard he went to the BNZ branch in Gordon Rd at lunchtime, parking his Mazda in the nearby council car park.
Hira walked in wearing a black hat, a singlet covering his face, wielding the gun-shaped item and carrying a back pack.
He pointed the wheel brace at the teller "in a manner to make her believe that he possessed a firearm" and yelled at her, demanding cash.Hira said he would use the "firearm" if she did not comply.
As she doled out the notes and coins, the defendant repeated the threat and told the staff member to hurry.
Bank employees and a female customer who was there at the time were "extremely traumatised" by the experience, police said.
While police hunted for Hira, he was running another money-making scheme.
The Mongrel Mob prospect had befriended a shopkeeper — whose identity was suppressed by the courts — and began blackmailing him.
Hira claimed he had evidence of the man in an intimate clinch with an underage girl, something the gang might react violently to should they find out.
The defendant made dozens of orders for tobacco, cellphone top-up cards, fuel vouchers and groceries, which the victim, aged in his 50s, would deliver to him on a weekly basis.
"He harangued and nagged the victim constantly by phone and text and stalked him ... while he worked," court documents said.
Judge John Macdonald said the man was socially isolated and the extortion only became apparent after police investigated Hira’s drug-dealing. Cellphone records showed clear evidence of the defendant selling methamphetamine and cannabis between March and May.
When officers searched his Maitland St home they found $1000 of methamphetamine and a "large supply" of small plastic bags, commonly used by dealers.
Judge Macdonald said Hira appeared to have "limited remorse" for his wide range of crimes.
Gang influences and drug use had played a prominent role in the defendant’s life, he said, but he was eager to address his underlying problems in prison.
As well as the jail term, Judge Macdonald also imposed a nine-month driving ban, which he acknowledged was "academic".
