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Street robbers get broadside from judge
By David Clarkson. Two teen thugs got a full broadside from a judge ? and then got given home detention and community work sentences.
They were called ?clowns? whose behaviour had been disgraceful and motivated by nothing but greed.
One of the pair ? a keen sportsman, Semisi Lopeti Poleiku ? was told that he would have to put his rugby playing on hold for the season while he did his sentence.
Judge Raoul Neave told him: ?A decent sportsman requires a degree of courage and you haven?t got any.?
Poleiku and Elima Faaiva were both aged 17 when the series of street robberies took place in Riccarton last October. They each admitted two robbery charges, and Faaiva also admitted a separate assault and a breach of bail.
The pair were told that they had avoided jail ?by a whisker?, and had been saved by their guilty pleas. They would have been going to jail if they had been convicted at trial.
Judge Raoul Neave told the pair that they had not managed to stand up to peer pressure from the youngest of the group of five allegedly involved in the robberies. He was a 15-year-old who had been dealt with in the Youth Court with a sentence that was effectively home detention.
Defence counsel Peter Doody said Poleiku was a first offender who was apologetic and remorseful.
For Faaiva, Richard Peters said his client had now obtained work. He had brought shame on his family but they were standing by him.
Both men had offered to undergo restorative justice meetings but the victims of the robberies had declined to take part. The four victims were mainly students who had been beaten and robbed of cellphones, watches, and wallets. They received cuts, bruises, grazes and swelling and one had a broken nose.
Judge Neave sentenced the pair to nine months of home detention, 150 hours of community work, and reparation payments of $146.60. Faaiva will have an additional six months of special conditions for treatment and assessment.
He told Poleiku and Faaiva: ?Go away and don?t ever come back.?
