Drug user jailed for part in robbery

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A young man decided to team up with two others and rob a Whangarei dairy for cash to buy cannabis.

Jamie Ross-Harris, 20, was sent to prison for three years and nine months when he appeared for sentencing in the Whangarei District Court this month after earlier pleading guilty to one charge of aggravated robbery and another of receiving.

Judge Duncan Harvey read in court glowing references and told Ross-Harris he let down those who wrote in support of him and members of his whanau, who openly sobbed during sentencing.

Ross-Harris and two others robbed the Korna Dairy on Morningside Rd on October 31 this year armed with a knife and a screw driver.

Prior to October 31 the dairy had been targeted twice before being targeted and offenders have used a broom stick and a machete as weapons.

Judge Harvey said on October 31, one offender acted as a lookout while Ross-Harris and an accomplice went into the dairy armed with a knife and a screwdriver respectively. The dairy owner's two children and a customer were also in the shop.

He handed over $230 cash before all three ran towards Porowini Ave and drove away.

Police went to a house Ross-Harris was at and recovered an X-Box that had been stolen from a rural property prior to the aggravated robbery of the dairy.

He admitted receiving the X-Box as well as his role in the aggravated robbery.

Crown prosecutor Jarred Scott said Ross-Harris didn't help police locate his co-offenders and that the robbery involved a degree of planning.

He submitted a starting point of five years in prison because of the facts there were two offenders armed with weapons, and a getaway driver.

Defence lawyer Kelly Ellis said Ross-Harris was a young man with good prospects in life. She said her client decided to get involved because he needed money to buy cannabis. He was grateful no one was hurt, she said.

Judge Harvey said there was no point in the court ordering reparation. Probation service assessed him at a medium risk of re-offending.

Ross-Harris had a serious problem with drugs and Judge Harvey hoped help was extended to him while in prison. He imposed a sentence of three years and nine months in jail.