A Dunedin teenager has been given two years' jail for robbing a south city dairy at knife-point last November. Luke Bradley Savigny (18) had admitted robbing the Sai Food Market Dairy in Prince Albert Rd while armed with a large knife.
Savigny and a 21-year-old associate targeted the dairy and decided to rob it. Just after 9.30am on November 17, the then 17-year-old walked into the store, his appearance disguised, carrying a large knife above his head.
He demanded cash and cigarettes from the dairy owner, who fell to the floor then made his way to the living quarters behind the shop to call the police.
Savigny grabbed packets of tobacco and cans of drink before running from the shop to meet his associate, who had been keeping watch outside. They shared the stolen goods.
At sentencing in the Dunedin District Court yesterday, Crown counsel Richard Smith and David More, for Savigny, both acknowledged the case was one which could attract a sentence of two years' jail when deductions were made for the offender's youth, his early guilty plea and his remorse.
Mr Smith said the Crown advocated a starting point of four years. But he accepted that, ultimately, where credit of up to 50% was available, the case could come within the two-year threshold, where home detention was an option.
Mr More said a letter Savigny had written to the court reflected his remorse and his level of intellectual ability. It added weight to the submission he was ''very much the junior partner'' in the enterprise, although he was the one who went into the shop.
While agreeing four years was an appropriate starting point, Mr More said relevant case law did not prohibit a non-custodial sentence for such offending. Savigny said he had learned from his time in prison on remand.
He wanted to get clear of his substance abuse and knew that, if he was granted the indulgence of home detention and breached any of the conditions, he would be back inside. Judge Stephen O'Driscoll said he had thought ''long and hard'' about whether home detention was appropriate and whether he should exercise his discretion and impose such a sentence.
The issue was ''finely balanced'', Judge O'Driscoll said. But although reducing the four-year starting point by 50% for Savigny's youth, early guilty plea and remorse, bringing it to the point where home detention was an option, he had decided it would not be appropriate.
There were too many robberies of small stores and the message had to be sent to young offenders ''this type of crime will not be tolerated'', the judge said.
He took into account the vulnerability of the store owners and the fact the particular dairy had been targeted three times by robbers or would-be robbers. While accepting Savigny was not responsible for the other two robberies, the teenager had been the one who went into the store in November and confronted the victim with a knife.
''Shop owners must be able to carry out their business without being targeted by people with weapons,'' Judge O'Driscoll said. Another aggravating feature was the defendant had been on a rehabilitative sentence of supervision at the time.
The judge also took into account probation's concerns about Savigny's alarming abuse of substances, the fact he had been unmedicated for ADHD, his difficulties with community-based sentences and his undisciplined lifestyle, ''coming and going'' as he pleased.
He sentenced the youth to two years' jail, followed by six months of post-release conditions for drug and alcohol assessments, counselling and treatment, and other assessments and treatment programmes as directed.
He also ordered him to pay $170 reparation.
