Having spent the last two years behind bars on remand, Colm Francis Lenihan (34) will be eligible for a parole hearing soon.
The Dunedin District Court last week heard details of the two pharmacy burglaries which happened within hours of each other on June 2, 2018.
Judge Kevin Phillips said Lenihan played a leading role in the break-ins, which he committed with 34-year-old Tony Charles Robertson.
First, the duo circled Balmac Pharmacy several times before parking out the back.
Though it was lunchtime on a Saturday, it was deserted because it was Queen’s Birthday weekend.
Lenihan jemmied open the padlock to the cellar door.
The passageway within was directly below the dispensary but they left empty-handed when they discovered they had triggered an alarm.
Next they targeted Mornington Pharmacy, 4km from the location of their previous failed attempt.
Lenihan climbed on to the roof of the Eglinton Rd premises and removed a solar dome to gain entry to the ceiling cavity.
He covered a motion sensor with a piece of insulation and forced his way down into the pharmacy.
After taking $3700 worth of drugs, he called Robertson to pick him up early on June 3.
Just over a week later, police searched Lenihan’s Stafford St home where they found three-quarters of the stolen medication.
Defence counsel John Westgate said the clear motivation behind the burglaries was his client’s methamphetamine addiction.
Lenihan planned to sell the stolen goods to buy more class A drugs.
Mr Westgate told the court the defendant had spent his time on remand getting clean, reflecting on his life and re-establishing a relationship with his father
“His time in prison has not been a waste. He has used that time to his advantage as much as he could,” he said.
Judge Phillips noted Lenihan had previous convictions for dishonesty and was serving a rehabilitative sentence at the time of the 2018 offending.
It was sad, he said, that because of the defendant’s actions, people on the methadone programme, trying to beat their habit, were robbed of their medication.
Robertson, who was sentenced in March, was given 18 months’ imprisonment but is serving that on top of another sentence for other burglaries.
