The recovering methamphetamine addict was recently sentenced for 57 charges, which included over $60,000 worth of thefts. Video / Supplied
Meth addict Michael Max Tupago stole over $60,000 from businesses and their employees across Auckland, Northland and Hamilton.
He was sentenced this week for 57 crimes, many of which involved stealing tip jars and charity donation boxes.
Auckland District Court Judge Pippa Sinclair noted Tupago’s remarkable recovery and leadership within the recovery community.
A serial thief specialising in the filching of tip jars and donation boxes from business counters across the North Island managed to steal over $60,000 over the course of a 13-month crime spree.
By the time St Heliers resident Michael Max Tupago, 36, was sentenced this week in Auckland District Court, he had racked up 57 different charges - resulting in a 42-page summary of facts.
But despite his extraordinarily thick rap sheet, the hearing also served as a celebration of sorts for the recovering methamphetamine addict, who has spent just over a year at a live-in drug rehab facility and asked the court to return him there as part of his sentence.
“This has been the most remarkable turnaround by a defendant - started by himself,” defence lawyer Scott Leith said, describing Tupago as having undergone one of the most impressive transformations of a client he’s ever seen.
Serial thief Michael Tupago, a methamphetamine addict who specialised in taking tip jars and donation boxes, has pleaded guilty to 57 charges spanning the North Island. A judge recently congratulated the Auckland resident on his efforts to kick his drug habit.
Court documents outline how Tupago targeted businesses between March 2022 and April 2023 to fuel his addiction. His modus operandi, Judge Pippa Sinclair noted, often involved his then-partner Leteasha McMurdo distracting staff while Tupago zeroed in on items on the counter or purses stored in off-limits staff areas.
Stolen bank cards were quickly used to rack up hundreds of dollars in additional expenses before the victims were able to cancel them.
McMurdo was sentenced last year for her involvement.
Tupago could have faced up to seven years' imprisonment each for 37 theft charges and up to 10 years in prison for five burglary charges, which included a March 2023 incident in which he walked into a room at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Auckland Central and stole a guest’s Australian passport.
He also admitted to six counts of using bank cards for a pecuniary advantage, two counts of failing to stop for police, one count of dangerous driving and other charges.
The vast majority of victims were restaurants and retail outlets throughout Auckland, as well as their employees. But the pair also stole over $1000 worth of sunglasses from a store in Hamilton; three donation boxes from businesses in Paihia; an employee’s car keys and an SPCA donation box from businesses in Kerikeri; a donation box from a petrol station in Kaeo; and a tip jar reported to have contained several hundred dollars from a Whangārei restaurant.
Their smallest heist outlined in court documents involved Tupago stuffing an ice cream and an energy drink - combined value, $9 - down his pants at a store in Coopers Beach, Northland.
When later questioned about the March 2023 burglary of Rib House restaurant in Auckland, in which he crept behind the bar and stole $400 in coins used for the gaming lounge, he acknowledged to police: “It was probably me, but I was pretty high on drugs.”
For most of the charges, he declined to comment.
The theft spree came to an end on April 11, 2023, when police recognised Tupago as being wanted for the dishonesty offending and tried to stop his vehicle in Remuera.
A CCTV still shows Michael Tupago reaching for a tip jar. The methamphetamine addict was a serial thief who specialised in taking tip jars and donation boxes, but he says he's now turned his life around.
“The defendant accelerated away from police on the wrong side of the road, narrowly missing oncoming traffic,” court documents state. “At this time the weather conditions were poor and the road was wet. There was a heavy volume of traffic.”
He continued to weave through lanes after running a red light, forcing traffic to stop at one point as he accelerated into the opposite lane at over 85km/h. He eventually dumped the car in St Johns and was arrested a short time after that.
McMurdo, a passenger in the car, was also arrested.
Tupago’s case dragged on for years in court in part because he continued to be identified in new crimes - many of which were caught on CCTV - as his image was distributed by law enforcement. Each time he appeared in court new charges would be added, Leith explained to the judge.
But he owned up to his misdeeds as soon as practically possible, the defence lawyer said.
A standing-room-only crowd of supporters filled the courtroom this week, as had been the case during previous court dates. Many were from the recovery community. Judge Sinclair allowed two people of Tupago’s choosing to address her directly about why they were in attendance.
A co-founder of Recovery First House, the rehabilitation facility where Tupago has resided on electronically monitored bail since December 2023, said he had never been to a sentencing before to support a resident but this case was different.
“Not many people come to Recovery House and succeed,” he acknowledged. “Mike’s taken recovery with open arms ...
“Instead of being a taker, he’s been a real giver. A lot of people in the recovery community depend on Mike. He’s a real leader.
“The house wouldn’t function as well as it has over the past year without him.”
Another supporter who touted being clean and sober for over four years now recalled growing up with Tupago surrounded by addiction, gangs and abuse.
“We were stuck in a cycle,” he said, explaining that they both had no family and would re-offend soon after getting out of jail - a perpetual burden on the system.
But after years of separation, they reconnected at Narcotics Anonymous and he has been proud to see Tupago’s progress, he said.
Judge Sinclair congratulated both men on their hard work.
She confirmed the defendant’s rough childhood, which included a father involved in drugs and gangs and an alcoholic mother. He went into state care at age 13 after his mother died and turned to the Killer Beez and the Tribesmen for an alternative family but left the gangs a decade ago, she noted.
A CCTV still shows serial thief Michael Tupago as he victimises a business. The methamphetamine addict, who specialised in taking tip jars and donation boxes, has been sentenced for 57 charges spanning the North Island.
When she first received Tupago’s file, Judge Sinclair said her first impression was that prison was inevitable.
“Given the sheer number and repetitive nature of your offending, it could almost be classified as a commercial operation,” she explained, reminding him that “on each occasion, you created a victim by taking their property”.
“The victims have conveyed their understandable distress.”
But she settled on a sentence of 11 months home detention, to be spent at the rehabilitation facility.
She noted that Tupago had already spent 431 days in custody waiting for his case to be resolved - a stay so lengthy as to have already served the punishment purposes of a sentence. He spent another 412 days on electronically monitored bail.
If he was to be sentenced to prison, Tupago’s lawyer noted, he would most likely be released within a couple of months at his first Parole Board hearing and in the meantime wouldn’t get the continued benefit of his recovery programme.
While police initially suggested a sentence of imprisonment, the prosecutor acknowledged prior to the judge’s decision that a non-custodial term made sense given the unique circumstances.
Judge Sinclair also ordered that Tupago be disqualified from driving for two-and-a-half years, noting that it was “pure luck and good fortune” that no members of the public were killed as he fled police in Remuera. She recalled that one of his chores at Recovery First is to drive others to meetings but said the law required the disqualification period given his long history of fleeing police.
Police had sought disqualification for four-and-a-half years.
Judge Sinclair recalled that Tupago’s lawyer had called his change in attitude “remarkable” after having “demonstratively defeated” his “massive meth habit”.
“He may well be right,” she said, noting the supporters in the audience as Tupago wiped at his eyes. “There is a common theme: Not only have you fully embraced the Recovery First programme ... but you have also shown leadership qualities and been a role model for others coming through the programme.”
She expressed hope that his sobriety efforts would continue, noting that if it does it will be the best outcome not only for him but for the community he has so often taken from.
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.
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