A 33-year-old Napier man was jailed yesterday after attempting to rob a bottle store last year with his 13-year-old nephew in tow.
Walter George Brown was sentenced to three years in prison for the botched robbery in which his underage nephew acted as a getaway driver, Hawke's Bay Today reported.
During sentencing at Napier District Court Judge Bridget Mackintosh said that while Brown denied any part in the incident during two separate jury trials, his late admission of guilt was a mitigating factor that deducted six months from his sentence.
On November 13 last year Brown entered the Taradale Tavern wearing a balaclava and apparently concealing a gun.
There were no customers, the barman fled and Brown, unable to get any money, ran out of the tavern to the car where his nephew was waiting, the newspaper reported.
Brown was not arrested until the following month after he committed two burglaries in Wellington.
