Mathew Bryan McLaren, also known as Pritchard (19), used a fishing knife he had stolen from The Warehouse the previous night to commit the robbery so he could get synthetic cannabis to sell. He told police he stole the knife for protection, as the pocket knife he carried was not large enough.
As well as the knife theft and the aggravated robbery of the Meadowbank Dairy, McLaren was also sentenced in the Dunedin District Court yesterday for the violent burglary of Night 'n Day Foodstores in Milton, on October 6.
The defendant used a metal wheel brace, then an axe, to damage the doors of the dairy so he could get in and steal cigarettes and cans of energy drink.
McLaren was on bail for that offending when he stole the fishing knife and used it to rob the dairy in Oamaru on November 30, Crown counsel Richard Smith said.
Most of the defendant's previous convictions dated back to the Youth Court, but they demonstrated his propensity for criminal offending. The Crown believed a sentence starting at five years, with an end sentence of about four years, was appropriate, Mr Smith said.
But defence counsel John Westgate said while McLaren accepted prison was the only option, four years for a 19-year-old was a very long time and he was probably unlikely to get parole ''the first time round''. Anything over three and a-half years would be ''crushing''.
''Drugs, drugs, drugs, are this man's problem,'' Mr Westgate said. McLaren knew that, until he dealt with the problem, he remained at risk of re-offending. He had expressed his willingness to go on a programme when he was released.
Judge Michael Crosbie said the defendant's drug use was out of control. That had clearly been what was behind the offending. McLaren needed to do something about the addiction or he would remain at high likelihood of reoffending.
The judge acknowledged that, for a person of McLaren's age, prison should be ''a last resort''.
Aggravated robberies were always dealt with seriously, the judge said, sentencing McLaren to three years and 11 months' jail for the robbery, with a concurrent two-month sentence for the burglary which, he said, involved wanton destruction and persistence. The defendant was also given a first warning under the ''three strikes legislation''.
On the knife theft, he was convicted and discharged.
