A man has been jailed for more than four years for a slew of crimes including standover tactics, wild driving and drug possession.
It took Judge Kevin Phillips so long to detail 37-year-old Scott Edward Moseley’s four months of offending that the defendant was given a more comfortable seat than the wooden dock in which to sit at the Dunedin District Court yesterday.
Most serious among his crimes were two aggravated robberies committed within a week of each other in March 2017.
In both, Moseley — and associates — made violent threats against two men at their homes.
When demands for cash were rejected, the defendant and his friends took Holden Commodore cars that were at each property.
While defence counsel Anne Stevens QC accepted Moseley was the spokesman in both incidents, it did not make him any more culpable than others present, she said.
The pattern of intimidation continued the next month, the court heard.
Moseley had spent time in prison with a man he believed had disrespected him.
‘‘You said you would smash his teeth and stab him unless he paid an exorbitant sum,’’ Judge Phillips said.
Moseley visited the man at a Balclutha hostel and demanded $7000.
Eventually, the sum became $100.
Moseley was willing to go to extreme lengths, travelling with the victim to his mother’s house, where she wrote out a cheque for the amount.
Before leaving, he took the man’s bank card and withdrew his wages before he could cancel it with the bank.
The victim, the court heard, was so scared of Moseley he raised a $3000 loan in case he returned.
By April 27, police were looking for the defendant, but he was not willing to give himself up.
Moseley took officers on a chase around Dunedin, reaching speeds of 120kmh, weaving through traffic and skittling road cones.
It was one of the orange plastic markers that was to be his downfall.
It got trapped under the ‘‘supercharged’’ Holden Moseley was driving and caught fire as he dragged it around.
Police found methamphetamine equipment and cannabis in the vehicle.
The judge said it was at the ‘‘absolute top end’’ of reckless driving.
Not even incarceration was enough to stem the offending.
While at Otago Corrections Facility, Moseley went to the cell of one of his co-defendants and told him to take the blame for an aggravated robbery.
Later, in July, he gave a note to a prisoner being released to pass on to another witness, telling them to take responsibility or not show up to give evidence.
Corrections discovered Moseley’s efforts, however, and he was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Even a prison guard joined the lengthy list of victims.
While moving Moseley, the defendant told him: ‘‘You wait, I’ll get you’’, among other threats.
All the victims, Judge Phillips said, continued to feel afraid of the man even with him behind bars.
One man had moved house twice and distanced himself from friends so he was harder to find, while a woman caught up in Moseley’s driving rampage had dyed her hair and suffered repeated anxiety attacks.
The judge said the offending was driven both by the man’s methamphetamine use and the fact he was ‘‘institutionalised’’.
Moseley was sentenced to four years three months.
Because it involved his second strike, under the three-strikes regime, he will serve the entire term without hope of parole.
