KEY POINTS:
A judge has signalled a hefty prison term for an 18-year-old schoolboy who admitted confronting tellers at two Christchurch banks with an imitation pistol.
The parents of John Anthony Fraser, of Spreydon, have been in court for every appearance and they were in the Christchurch District Court today when he pleaded guilty and was told there was no prospect of home detention.
"He's looking at far more than home detention," Judge Stephen Erber told defence counsel Elizabeth Bulger when she asked for a home detention report to be prepared.
"He had a pistol. People have been killed with these pistols and it was loaded," said the judge.
He told Fraser: "You have committed very serious crimes here. They could have resulted in tragedy."
Fraser was remanded in custody to February 5 for sentence. Judge Erber asked for a probation report and a reparation report. He also told Miss Bulger the sentencing could be brought forward if a date became available.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Dave Murray withdrew a charge of assaulting a woman teller with intent to rob her, and replaced it with a charge of demanding with menaces.
Fraser admitted the new charge, and also pleaded guilty to robbing a teller of cash while armed with the imitation Glock pistol. He also admitted charges of careless driving, failing to stop after a non-injury accident, and deliberate wheel-spinning.
Sergeant Murray said Fraser crashed into the rear of a car in Matipo Street, causing no damage. He then overtook it and drove away. Two days after he got his car, he spun the wheels for 7m across an intersection and crashed into a lamppost.
At 1.40pm on September 29, he went to a central city ANZ bank with the spring-loaded bb gun in a backpack and passed a note to the teller saying, "Don't move, this is a robbery. Put money in the bag."
When the woman teller asked if he was kidding, he opened the bag and showed her the gun. When she spoke to another teller, he left and rode his motorcycle to another bank.
At the second bank, at 2.10pm, he used the automatic teller machine then wrote another note on a withdrawal slip and waited in line to see a teller.
This time he was holding the pistol when he showed it to the teller and he was given $500.
Fraser then went home, paid $190 to an associate, spent $20 on food and put $275 in a drawer where it was found later.
When police arrived he admitted his actions and explained that he was heavily in debt, said Sergeant Murray.
Fraser turned 18 yesterday, while on remand in custody.
- NZPA
