A dairy owner has been left with a permanent injury after being attacked by three armed robbers, as well as their unarmed driver, in an act of “gratuitous violence”.
Owner Nitin Patel was on the phone when a stolen car pulled up outside the Silverdale Superette in Hamilton on the afternoon of July 6 this year.
Three armed men jumped out and stormed the shop, one whacked Patel with a metal bar several times, while another jumped over the counter.
Nicholas Tumanako ran in wielding an axe and smashed it down on the counter before dropping it, running out the back then returning and picking up dropped coins off the floor.
Outside, Patel paced as the group ripped out the till and stole cigarettes before running out and again attacking him. One used the metal bar, and the other kicked him so hard in the knee that he fell to the ground.
The driver got out of the stolen car, kicked him in the head and punched him.
The robbers then fled with $300 cash and an unknown quantity of cigarettes.
Tumanako, 18, was arrested and on Wednesday was jailed in the Hamilton District Court after earlier admitting two charges of motor vehicle conversion and one of aggravated robbery.
Crown prosecutor Laurie McMaster said while the use of a weapon was adherent in the charge, she urged Judge Philip Crayton to look at the type of weapon.
“Here it’s the use of an axe and that’s a serious aggravating feature.”
Counsel Kaleb Whyte said although Tumanako had an axe, he only used it to strike the counter and then immediately dropped it, not to use it again.
The violence involved in the robbery was “immediately acknowledged” by his client who was genuinely remorseful.
Judge Philip Crayton said Patel was not in the best of health before the attack and now he had been left with a debilitating leg injury from the armed robbery, and his business had suffered financially.
“This involved a serious assault.
“All too often offences of this type do involve violence.
“This was violence well beyond that. This was violence which plainly was gratuitous. It was over and above which could possibly have been necessary to carry out the offence against this person.”
Judge Crayton noted that these sorts of armed robberies were now “all too common” in Hamilton and had been life-changing for Patel.
Whyte had submitted that it was commercial premises which had greater risk, and penalties, however, Judge Crayton said he wouldn’t ignore owners of smaller premises, where often just one person is working without much security.
It was those people who had no choice but to head back to work the next day and had no choice but to put themselves at risk again.
“They are the people in our community who deserve the court’s protection.”
Judge Crayton took a starting point of five years and nine months jail, and after applying various discounts, jailed Tumanako for three years and one week.
Patel continues to work but his son told NZME that while his father already had an issue with his leg, due to the attack it was now at the point where if he sat or lay down, he needed help to get back up again.
He could no longer lift anything heavy or run. He was pleased that Tumanako had pleaded guilty and been jailed.
“That’s something, better than nothing,” Patel’s son said.
Patel said he wasn’t scared of the robbers himself, he was more afraid for his young family members who might be working in the store at the time.
The superette had been targeted six times since March last year, the most recent being on Tuesday evening when five men stormed in, some armed, and attacked a cousin with a flathead screwdriver.
The robbers took off with the till, which was found yesterday along with the stolen car.
Patel said making it even more frustrating was the owner of the superette building no longer taking their calls about their requests to fix the storefront or upgrade it.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for eight years and been a journalist for 19.
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