Christopher Wise, 47, appeared in the Dunedin District Court last week after admitting five burglaries, a spree which took place over only 10 days in July.
It was not as though the former Auckland man kept a low profile either.
Midway through the string of offences he graffitied the Dunedin District Court sign, and used a blue marker to tag other walls around the city.
Wise said he was ready to turn his life around, but with now 24 burglary convictions to his name and a raft of broken promises behind him, Judge David Robinson was sceptical of the claim.
"We’re at the point where your sentiments simply carry no weight," the judge said.
Wise was jailed for three years.
Counsel Libby Hadlow said her client had moved down to Dunedin to get away from negative influences following the breakdown of a relationship and subsequent drug overdose.
But by July 5, Wise’s life had unravelled again.
First he broke into the offices of a real estate firm in High St, prising open a window and making off with a $1000 laptop after triggering an alarm.
Half an hour later, the court heard Wise forced his way into an analytics company around the corner, where he raided the boardroom for audiovisual equipment.
In the same building, he broke into a property evaluation workplace and grabbed further electronics.
A couple of days later, Wise travelled to Invercargill, where his pattern of deceit continued.
There, he targeted a marketing agency and made off with three electronic tablets, petty cash and food.
His most lucrative burglary came last, when he got into the offices of a finance firm and swiped 10 laptops as well as an array of other items.
The court heard how Wise advertised the stolen goods for sale on social media but much of the haul was found at his home when police executed a search warrant on July 17.
Judge Robinson stressed the severe impact on the victims.
"They’re written off as commercial burglaries but they still affect people in the same way as burglaries of residential premises," he said.
"Real people suffer real fear as a consequence of what you did."
The court heard one company had to scramble frantically to protect confidential client documents which were contained on the stolen computers.
A representative said the break-in brought with it an overwhelming sense of violation.
"[It was] deeply shocking and distressing for the entire team," they wrote in a statement.
A background report on Wise showed he grew up in a stable home but succumbed to the influence of peers with whom he abused substances, resulting in a stint in state care.
The judge highlighted there was a degree of planning behind Wise’s crimes; many of the offices he burgled were in multi-storey blocks.
"That’s not an opportunistic walking past and deciding ‘I’ll have that’," he said.
The victims suffered total losses of up to $22,000 but Judge Robinson said Wise had no means to pay that off, and declined to order reparation.
