A Dunedin woman who robbed an intellectually impaired man after hearing he had come into some money has dodged a prison sentence.
Mae Charlotte Katherine Stringer (21) would have been heading to Christchurch Women's Prison had it not been for her ''hugely disadvantaged childhood''.
When she appeared in the Dunedin District Court last week, Judge Emma Smith noted the defendant had been raised by foster families, left school at 14, moved in with a boyfriend at 16 and had three children.
The deprivation she suffered during her upbringing had manifested in a range of psychological issues, which resulted in significant time being cut from her sentence.
Like her 19-year-old boyfriend Regan Keller Kennedy, Stringer was sentenced to 12 months' home detention - the most severe sentence the court can impose before incarceration.
Stringer was with Kennedy and two other friends on September 16.
The group went to Alva St to pay a debt but when they saw a woman they knew leave the property, Kennedy went into her room and snatched a laptop.
A trip to the pawn shop to swap the item for cash proved fruitless because it was password-protected.
While they were there, they bumped into an associate who tipped them off that a 21-year-old man, whom they all knew, had received a windfall from Work and Income of $1200.
At 7pm, they found the man's home empty, but they persisted.
Two and a-half hours later they returned and he let the group in.
To verify the victim was flush with cash, one of the women asked to borrow $40 for cannabis, which he agreed to.
Kennedy, who was in the house with Stringer, then demanded the rest of the money from the victim and, when he refused, he grabbed his shirt and pulled him to his feet.
Kennedy pulled the wallet from the man's pocket, then gave the money to Stringer who ran off to the car.
The teen threatened to ''smash'' the man if he called police and walked out, stealing a pouch of tobacco on his way.
The quartet drove to John Wilson Ocean Dr where they divvied up the cash, after disposing of bank cards and the victim's phone on the journey.
Nearly seven months later, Stringer was involved in an ''explicable occurrence of road rage''.
Her co-defendant, Hayley Coxon, drove after a woman they believed had driven badly on State Highway 1.
When the victim pulled up at her home, Coxon held the driver and Stringer punched her in the face.
The actions, Judge Smith said, were ''demonstrative of someone who has very little ability to filter their behaviours''.
Crown prosecutor Craig Power said Stringer had minimised her role in the offences during pre-sentence interviews.
The judge, however, accepted the defendant was remorseful.
Her oppositional attitude was engrained.
''That's how you've survived for most of your life,'' Judge Smith said.
Though Stringer had breached a sentence of home detention in the past, the judge said she had reached a point in her life when she was most likely to be rehabilitated.
Stringer, who was convicted of aggravated robbery, burglary and assault, was also ordered to pay $300 reparation.
