{"id":442444,"date":"2026-05-24T03:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T03:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/442444\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T03:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T03:00:20","slug":"man-sentenced-for-burglary-spree-targeting-high-end-jewellery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/442444\/","title":{"rendered":"Man sentenced for burglary spree targeting \u2018high-end\u2019 jewellery"},"content":{"rendered":"

His counsel, Amin Osama, told Judge Noel Cocurullo in the Hamilton District Court<\/a> that it was when his client discovered meth in his 30s that his life began unravelling.<\/p>\n

A chance chat at the pub playing pokies resulted in him helping to steal tens of thousands of dollars\u2019 worth of property from people\u2019s homes.<\/p>\n

On one occasion, two Rolex watches, handbags, and other jewellery were stolen from a Flagstaff house, worth approximately $100,000, while eight World War II medals were fleeced from a home.<\/p>\n

Given Silbery had pleaded guilty to 37 burglary charges, he knew he was going to jail, but Osama was aiming for up to 60% in discounts in the hope of making that stint as short as possible.<\/p>\n

\u2018Gold, silver, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Rolex, Burberry\u2019<\/p>\n

The first house to be struck was on May 16, 2024.<\/p>\n

Silbery drove his co-accused there and eventually made off with <\/p>\n

a bag, a gold necklace, other jewellery, and coins. <\/p>\n

The next day, they went to another home, andstole roughly $10,000 worth of jewellery.<\/p>\n

For each of the 37 burglaries jewellery, cash, Gucci or Louis Vuitton bags or other expensive property was stolen. <\/p>\n

The rooms were ransacked as drawers were rummaged through, and boxes and containers searched.<\/p>\n

On September 4, the pair hit a house in a different location. When the family returned from the supermarket they found $75,000 worth of belongings – diamond rings and earrings, two Louis Vuitton handbags, a Gucci handbag, a Rolex watch, and a Burberry backpack – gone.<\/p>\n

Police searched Silbery\u2019s Huntly home on October 18, and found a plastic rubbish sack containing several valuable handbags in the roof cavity, a small amount of jewellery and some war medals around the house.<\/p>\n

\"SomeSome of the stolen handbags recovered by police. Photo \/ Police<\/p>\n

He said bags in the roof were not hidden – they were just stored there.<\/p>\n

Silbery told police he thought something wasn\u2019t right, but he \u201creally needed the money\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018He wasn\u2019t able to make rational decisions\u2019<\/p>\n

Silbery had earlier accepted a sentence indication from Judge Cocurullo of an eight-and-a-half-year jail starting point, with a 20% deduction for his guilty pleas.<\/p>\n

Osama pushed for a further 40% in discounts for his drug addiction, remorse, attending restorative justice, previous good character, and the impact of a jail term on his children.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, he\u2019s messed up in a colossal way, but it does not mean that before he did that, he wasn\u2019t a person of good character.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was evidenced by the 17 character references from Silbery\u2019s friends and associates in the community, employers, teammates from sporting teams, iwi, along with affidavits from wh\u0101nau.<\/p>\n

His father\u2019s affidavit explained how Silbery\u2019s meth and gambling addictions got so severe that he had to become the guarantor of his house to stop the bank taking it.<\/p>\n

Osama said Silbery had a good start to life, and was gainfully employed through his 20s.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis life started to become undone at the age of 30 when he started taking methamphetamine, and that led to a withdrawal from his community and family, and his isolation and severe addiction emerged to the point where he lost his job, and his partner left him.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was in that context that he met his co-accused, Osama said.<\/p>\n

As for knowing his actions were wrong, that was overshadowed by his addictions, which hampered his ability to make rational decisions. <\/p>\n

Since his arrest, Silbery had been trying to rehabilitate himself in custody, completing courses and getting himself a job in the prison\u2019s kitchen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is very serious offending. Yes, he was caught, but he has done everything right since then. He has expressed his remorse many, many times now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Cocurullo said Silbery owed his victims reparation, but he couldn\u2019t pay it, so he declined to order it, stating it would only re-victimise them.<\/p>\n

He agreed to allow 50% in discounts, including 15% for his previous good character, and 15% for attending restorative justice, efforts at rehabilitation, and addiction.<\/p>\n

Silbery was jailed for four years and three months.<\/p>\n

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"His counsel, Amin Osama, told Judge Noel Cocurullo in the Hamilton District Court that it was when his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9767,2082,42,55097,16285,5158,43,5161,4743,17902,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-442444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-burglary","tag-for","tag-headlines","tag-highend","tag-jewellery","tag-man","tag-news","tag-sentenced","tag-spree","tag-targeting","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}