Pair jailed for 'cowardly' attack on tourists

File photo / Rotorua Daily Post

Two Northland men who attacked and robbed three overseas visitors in their campervan have been told their "cowardly" behaviour may have caused immense damage to the tourist industry.

Lewis Conway Haddon and Bluray Joyce, both 18, unemployed, and from Horeke, in South Hokianga, had bashed and robbed the Frenchmen near Mangamuka, south of Kaitaia on May 21, The Northern Advocate reported.

Haddon was sentenced to four years and nine months while Joyce was jailed for four years for aggravated robbery.

In Kaikohe District Court on Friday, Judge John McDonald told Haddon and Joyce: "The flow-on effects of your cowardly attack on the tourism industry, particularly in Northland, may well be immense.

"These three will never come back, and will tell people: 'Don't go north of Auckland, you'll be set upon by bandits'."

One of the tourists said in a victim impact report he had travelled in West Africa, Asia and the United States without problem but no longer felt safe and feared sleeping in their van.

"I think it is bad for your country to have this kind of thing. If people ask me about New Zealand I feel obliged to tell them to be very wary of Northland," he wrote.

- NZPA