Jail over bungled dairy heist

Monday, February 13, 2012 17:06 1 Comment

File

A tomahawk-wielding man has been sentenced to three years and four months jail for assaulting two recent Asian immigrants as he tried to rob their Havelock North dairy.

HMS Helles Apuwai, 25, of Hastings, pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting a woman with intent to rob the Cherry Grove Dairy on September 15 last year and with assaulting her husband to facilitate his escape.

Having previously pleaded guilty, Apuwai appeared before Judge Tony Adeane in Napier District Court last week.

Accused getaway car driver Karl Lambert Hazelden, who turned 25 six days after the bungled heist, is yet to plead to a charge relating to the raid.

He is due to appear in court again on March 13.

Judge Adeane said the dairy proprietors spoke little or no English, but knew what was happening when Apuwai burst into the store brandishing a tomahawk, yelling his demands and chasing the woman as she fled behind the counter.

She used her arms to fend off one blow of the tomahawk. Her husband grabbed a hammer in the struggle as Apuwai pushed him out of the way to flee the shop and leapt into a car driven by another person.

Defence counsel Eric Forster said it was "only a matter of luck" that the proprietors were "resilient enough" to fight off the robbers.