Saige Tiopira appears for sentencing in the Rotorua Court. Photo / Andrew Warner.
Saige Tiopira appears for sentencing in the Rotorua Court. Photo / Andrew Warner.
Driven by a “severe” methamphetamine habit, Saige Tiopira hatched a plan with her boyfriend to print fake money.
The then-couple was living in emergency accommodation in a Rotorua backpackers’ when they photocopied bank notes and dished them out to others, resulting in retailers being “ripped off” around the city.
Now Tiopira has been jailed for 14 months.
She appeared in the Rotorua District Court yesterday for sentencing before Judge Maree MacKenzie after previously pleading guilty to 11 charges, including three relating to the forgery between June 13 and July 10.
Judge MacKenzie said 23 fake bank notes were presented at stores in Rotorua during that period, mostly in $10, $20 and $50 denominations.
“The notes had been printed using a regular printer onto regular white paper with a clear tape-like product to complete the clear see-through part of the note.”
The forgery-related charges included possession of a printer capable of being used to forge a document, forgery by making false banknotes and theft of ink cartridges to use making forged banknotes.
Tiopira’s boyfriend at the time of the offending, Amaru Rihia-Tipene, was sentenced to 12 months intensive supervision on a raft of charges in December. The judge in that case described the forgery offending as “amateurish” and “unsophisticated”, and noted the then-19-year-old had no previous convictions.
Amaru Rihia-Tipene was sentenced in Rotorua in December. Photo / Andrew Warner
The charges and what she did
Judge MacKenzie said Tiopira and Rihia-Tipene “were living together at the Backyard Inn emergency accommodation provider” when the forgery offending happened.
They went to The Warehouse in July last year and stole the ink cartridges valued at $107. Rihia-Tipene selected three cartridges and met up with Tiopira in the printer aisle to remove the packaging and conceal the cartridges in their pants.
Judge MacKenzie said Tiopira had 17 prior dishonestly-related convictions and two for breaching court-imposed sentences.
She also pleaded guilty to five charges of shoplifting at supermarkets and retail stores, and charges of failing to stop for police, failing to attend court and breaching community work.
Tiopira’s shoplifting charges related to offending between July and September last year. She stole $100 of groceries from Countdown in Central Mall, $296 of groceries from Countdown Fenton St, Nike socks and shoes from Rebel Sport valued at $230, $211 in items from The Warehouse and an unknown quantity of items from Countdown on Fenton St after she pretended to pay for items at a self check-out.
On January 24 this year, Tiopira failed to stop for police on Susan St and was eventually stopped using police road spikes on Fairy Springs Rd. She told police she did not stop because she knew the police were after her, Judge MacKenzie said.
The other charges related to failing to appear in court in September and failing to report for community work after being sentenced to 50 hours in July.
What the judge said
Judge MacKenzie described the forgery as “highly premeditated offending” despite it being unsophisticated.
“You enabled fake notes to get into circulation with the effect that retailers were ripped off by false bank notes being presented to them.”
She agreed with Tiopira’s lawyer, Taria Ngawhika, there should be some sentence discount because of what was written about Tiopira in her cultural report prepared for sentencing.
Judge MacKenzie said Tiopira was brought up with a gang influence – namely the Mongrel Mob – and she disconnected culturally. She had a diagnosis of ADHD but resisted being medicated, and her background included a history of trauma, exposure to family violence, time in state care and personal issues resulting in a teen pregnancy. “Not surprisingly” Tiopira turned to methamphetamine and had a lack of education because she left school at 12.
The judge described her “severe methamphetamine-use disorder” as the reason for her stealing.
“Your offending has got that written all over it … You have used and abused substances to self-medicate.”
From a starting point of 19 months in jail, Tiopira was given a discount for guilty pleas and the matters in her cultural report, and an increase for previous convictions.
The final sentence was 14 months in prison. Tiopira was also disqualified from driving for 12 months.
Judge MacKenzie left the door open for Tiopira to apply for home detention, suggesting her chances of getting it would be increased if she was willing to go to a residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility.
At the start of her sentencing, Tiopira tried to hide her face from being photographed. Judge MacKenzie instead offered the Rotorua Daily Post a better angle from the front of the courtroom.
“If you decide to make fake bank notes, then this is what is going to happen. There is public interest in this.”
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.
