The meeting involved one of the teens - a 13-year-old - his family, Oranga Tamariki, police and four other victims, including another dairy owner.
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Facilitated by Oranga Tamariki, youth justice family group conferences are intended to help youth take responsibility and leave them with a plan for the future.
While the victims could speak at the meeting, Sangeet Mehta said the decision had already been made as to what would happen with the youth.
The victim’s views did not make a difference. He was also left wondering what police were waiting for as the teen had about 44 charges.
“Still our law and order says we have to give him a chance to be a better person. Within six months, 44 crimes he (committed), so why are you waiting for the 45th?”
Mehta had a simple answer: “If you do the crime, you need to face it and that’s what I told the boy.”
The youths would not stop while they believed “no one can touch (them),” Mehta said.
The robbery happened in late August when teenagers - the youngest identified as just 10 - burst into the shop armed with a spanner about 7pm.
They tried to strike his wife but she avoided the blows by pushing a Covid screen at the offenders.
Their toddler was in the back of the shop and Mehta was visiting a patient at Christchurch Hospital at the time.
When Mehta asked for a trespass notice for the four offenders police had identified he was told the notices had been given.
But when he asked for photographs of the boys so he would know who to stop, police would not give them to him.
The offenders had been wearing masks and hoods, he said, so how would his wife know who they were if they walked into their shop again?
He asked the boy at the conference why he did it. The teen replied he did it for fun and for social media videos.
Mehta said he would not be waiting for an email regarding the outcome as he honestly believed nothing would happen.
He also wondered who was helping business owners hit by ram-raiders.
He had to fix the door and the wall, and install a steel gate and bollards.
He also had to pull back his open hours because of safety concerns.
“I’m losing my business. Who is it affecting? Me. Why? Because of youth, and we’re still thinking about ‘oh, we should have to give him another chance to become a nicer person’.”
Mehta queried why he should have to pay the insurance excess and fix everything when he was the victim.
He said all the dairy owners around him who had been hit were tired of being left to pick up the pieces without more help from the Government or action from the police.
When asked if he was still intending to sell his business, Mehta noted that “millions of dairies want to sell but no one will buy”.
“If I know your car is going to break down next year, is anyone going to buy (it)?” he said.
