A spate of aggravated robberies and brutal attacks on shopkeepers has brought the issue of retail crime back into the national spotlight.
A 501 deportee with a violent history in Australia was given little support when he arrived in Auckland, and within three months he had committed two armed robberies, a judge noted today as he sent the man to prison.
An acquaintance who had won $400 on a Karangahape Rd bar gaming machine had been flaunting his winnings that morning at a Queen St flat shared by Pua and co-defendant Aaron Pugh. They conspired with fellow 501 Heimana Robati to wait outside the apartment with a cut-down .22 rifle and rob the victim at gunpoint as he was leaving the building.
Robati was sentenced in 2022.
Pugh stood in the Auckland District Court dock today beside Pua, receiving a sentence of intensive supervision after the judge congratulated him on having “turned your life around significantly” while at the Grace Foundation drug treatment centre.
But for Pua, who went on to commit the second robbery followed by a vicious attack on his partner, there was no realistic expectation of anything other than prison, Judge Stephan Bonnar said.
Pua’s second robbery, in which he acted alone, took place on January 23, 2021. About 2.35pm, he brought an unloaded rifle concealed in a red tent into a Vincent Mini Mart in Auckland Central and waited for the customers to leave before confronting the shopkeeper with the gun, demanding cash and cigarettes.
The employee managed to activate a fog cannon, but Pua was able to grab about $200 from the register as he made his escape.
The employee was an 18-year-old, and it was his first weekend on the job, the dairy owner - who asked not to be identified by name - told the Herald in 2021. The teen was brave and remained pretty calm during the heist, but “he’s not going to be working again”, the owner said, adding: “He’s freaked out.”
It was the first time the shop had been robbed in the two and a half years they had owned it, and it came as a shock, the woman said at the time, explaining they often allowed locals to pay later if they didn’t have enough money to pay for their shopping.
A CCTV still shows Poa Pua's January 2021 daylight armed robbery of Vincent Mini Mart in Auckland Central. Photo / Supplied
“The fact that somebody needed something, they didn’t have to come into the shop with a gun,” she said.
But she didn’t hold animosity towards the gunman, explaining she had a message for him.
“You deserve better,” she said. “It’s not too late to start anew. We are all humans, we can make mistakes. Nobody knows what sort of pressures you are going through. But it’s never too late, you owe it to yourself to think again.”
Although the dairy owner’s message wasn’t mentioned in today’s court proceedings and there were no victims in attendance, defence lawyer Scott Brickell did outline the pressures his client had been under at the time. He had a traumatic childhood and a long-standing methamphetamine addiction that dated back to his teens, Brickell said.
He fell back into drug dependency after his expulsion from Australia but had done his best while on bail over the past few years to use his time wisely, gaining employment at one point and studying at night.
“He certainly is a man who’s trying to better himself ... after arriving back here after a very long period abroad,” he said.
But his time on bail ended last July when witnesses saw him repeatedly punching his partner outside a Papatoetoe dairy. One witness said he repeatedly threw “uppercuts” to her head until she fell to the ground, then picked her up and began punching her again, before picking her up and carrying her to their vehicle.
Police released this image from the Vincent Mini Mart robbery prior to the arrest of 501 deportee Poa Pua. Photo / NZ Police
Judge Bonnar noted Pua had no prior convictions in New Zealand but a history of violence and dishonesty offending in Australia, including family violence.
“You were largely unsupported in this country after being deported from Australia,” the judge said, citing a probation officer’s pre-sentence report. “You began using methamphetamine as a result of the lack of support.”
The judge also noted an “attitude of self-entitlement”, gang affiliations, a lack of insight into his offending and a history of electronically monitored bail violations, including an incident in which he foiled his ankle monitor.
“I accept that your background has not been good,” the judge said. “Your circumstances have no doubt caused you to become the man that you are and to set you on the path to offending.”
But for someone who is a repeat offender, there comes a point when that background has to be balanced against the protection of the community, he said.
“You have offended extensively in Australia and you have continued to offend extensively in New Zealand,” he said, ordering a sentence of four years and two months’ imprisonment.
Pua and Pugh gripped fists tightly from across the glass partition as they separated - Pugh to begin his intensive supervision and Pua headed back to prison.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
