May 11, 2013

Jail for double dairy robber

By David Clarkson?????

After robbing his second dairy, a 24-year-old Riccarton man went to the police station and asked to be put up in a hotel because he felt people were after him.

Benjamin Christopher Hardy?s defence counsel Andrew McCormick said it was a curious thing for an armed robber to do, but psychiatric reports show he had mental health issues and was off his medication in January when he robbed the stores.

Hardy went into a Riccarton dairy armed with a cricket bat and robbed the place of $180 from the till and made his getaway in a taxi. Two days later ? apparently buoyed by the success of his earlier crime ? he robbed a convenience store at Halswell of $400.

For the second store he carried a hammer to rob the 16-year-old woman shop assistant who was left anxious, needing counselling, and out of work for two months.

Hardy, described as a sign writer and sickness beneficiary, had pleaded guilty in the Christchurch District Court to the two armed robbery charges after psychiatric reports were completed. The reports showed there was no causal link between his mental health and the offending.

He had earlier been diagnosed with schizophrenia and possible manic episodes connected with some heavy cannabis use before the age of 18.

Without his medication, his mental state declined before he committed the robberies on January 13 and 15.

Mr McCormick said Hardy had strong family support and had already spent three-and-a-half months in custody since his arrest. He urged a home detention sentence though he admitted that a significant factor in any community-based sentence would be to manage Hardy?s cannabis use.

Prosecutor Karyn South said the Crown acknowledged the man?s mental health difficulties and accepted there was genuine remorse.

Hardy has written letters of apology, and his family has paid for the shops? losses.

Judge John McDonald said dairies were vulnerable targets, and the robberies had a considerable impact on the victims.

He reduced Hardy?s sentence for his remorse, his mental state, and his guilty pleas, and jailed him for two-and-a-half years.

Hardy was given a first-strike warning under the legislation that imposes harsher sentences on repeat violent offenders.