KEY POINTS:
A burglar who went for soft targets - old people living in rest homes - was jailed for three years with a warning from the judge that he could have killed his victims.
Joshua Paul Heta, a 33-year-old roofer, had not been long out of jail for the same sort of offending and was still on parole when he committed the three burglaries.
He pleaded guilty and was said to be remorseful. He even returned one elderly woman's handbag to the police kiosk after one burglary.
But crown prosecutor Deirdre Elsmore and Christchurch District Court Judge Raoul Neave both noted that he had no drug, alcohol, or gambling habits and had done the burglaries for greed.
"You are greedy and lazy and selfish - it's as simple as that," Judge Neave told him.
Mrs Elsmore said Heta had originally faced nine charges but the crown had eventually agreed to accept guilty pleas to three because some of the alleged victims had died in the meantime or were in too poor health to continue.
Defence counsel Rupert Glover said Heta had been in employment and had good family support but had lost all of that as a result of his latest offending.
"He can't have been out of prison very long before he returned to his old ways," said crown prosecutor Deirdre Elsmore.
"It was mean and cowardly offending."
There had been no threats or violence when he encountered some of his victims, the judge noted, but he did not accept Mr Glover's "valiant effort" to portray Heta as a gentleman burglar.
Burglaries of the homes of elderly people could completely shatter their confidence.
"It can bring an end to their ability to maintain themselves in their own home. The loss of independence that that can bring on in many people can be fatal," he told Heta.
"You could have killed them. Do you understand that?"
- NZPA
