Two earthquake looters were today given jail terms and one was told by the judge his blatant offending was "despicable".
Kimioa Ngatamariki, 21, was jailed for two months by Judge Tony Couch in Christchurch District Court today after he admitted burglary of a hairdressing salon in Barbadoes Street the day after the September 4 earthquake.
The judge said it was a despicable crime.
"This sort of offending requires an immediate response. I propose to sentence Ngatamariki to a brief sentence of imprisonment to make the point that taking advantage of a civil emergency for selfish reasons is something totally abhorrent and totally foreign to the values of our society."
Ngatamariki entered T G Hair Design in Barbadoes Street through the front window which had been smashed in the earthquake. He took hair products off the shelves and placed them in his backpack.
When passers-by confronted him he climbed out the front of the shop and walked away. A witness followed him to a house in Edgeware Road where police found him and the backpack of looted goods.
Defence counsel Grant Tyrrell said the facts did Ngatamariki absolutely no credit. There had been poor decision making at a time when his mother had died and he was responsible for supporting his sick father and three brothers. He was the family's primary breadwinner. He was deeply ashamed of his actions.
Louise Patricia Cooper, 51 was also given a two-month jail sentence by Judge Couch but after the five weeks she has spent in custody on remand it meant she was released immediately.
Police agreed to reduce a burglary charge to theft and she pleaded guilty to that and to a charge of being unlawfully in a yard.
The court has previously been told that she went to a property that was undergoing earthquake repairs on September 16 and took 34 items including food, a broom, and a squeegee.
