Janelle Sharon Pennicott came before the Dunedin District Court yesterday, having pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and an unrelated charge of driving while disqualified.
Early on January 5, the defendant and three friends were picked up by a taxi in Great King St.
The driver did not know all four of his passengers were broke and had already organised to swipe his cash at the journey’s completion.
The man dropped two of the group off in North Rd before taking Pennicott and a friend to Ainslee Pl.
The defendant placed her hand on the driver’s shoulder as he pulled over.
"I don’t want to hurt you. Just give us all your money," Pennicott said.
He believed the sharp sensation in his back was a weapon and co-operated with her.
Pennicott’s co-defendant grabbed about $100 from the driver’s money pouch attached to his belt and they scarpered.
The pair ran towards Chingford Park but the taxi driver was far from paralysed by fear.
He dashed after them and after a brief tussle they got away.
The victim suffered a scratch to his forearm but was otherwise uninjured, the court heard.
"There have been no lasting emotional consequences on him but he says he is more wary of who gets into his taxi and who sits directly behind him," Judge Michael Turner said.
The driver recognised Pennicott from other times he had given her a ride.He described being "flabbergasted" that such an episode would happen in Dunedin, Judge Turner said.
Defence counsel Campbell Savage said there was no great violence or premeditation in the crime.
"It wasn’t a wise decision and that’s why she’s received a conviction and a strike [under the three-strikes legislation] and something that will impact on her for the rest of her life."
With only a burglary and sentence breaches to her name and no convictions between 2008 and 2015, the incident marked a "significant escalation" in Pennicott’s criminal behaviour, the judge said.
While the defendant had offered to attend a restorative-justice conference, he said there were no obvious signs of remorse.
Pennicott’s Housing New Zealand property was assessed as unsuitable for serving a term of home detention but Judge Turner ruled imprisonment was the only appropriate outcome.
The defendant was also disqualified from driving for eight months.
Her friend is also charged with aggravated robbery and will appear in court next week.
