customers to the floor<\/a>, vaulted the counter and one of them fired a shot into the air.<\/p>\nThey grabbed more than $15,000 worth of goods \u2013 including 38 cellphones and cash \u2013 and a staff member was allegedly assaulted in the chaos.<\/p>\n
The group fled with Tautari driving, triggering a police manhunt that ended with arrests two weeks later.<\/p>\n
Tautari pleaded not guilty but was found guilty by a Kaikohe jury in April.<\/p>\n
Crown prosecutor Pablo Hambler said the robbery carried a clear aggravating feature: it was deliberately planned, evidenced by CCTV footage showing the group scoping the store before entering.<\/p>\n
Hambler argued the starting sentencing point should sit at six to seven years, given the daylight offending in a busy shopping precinct, the use of weapons and disguises, and the risk posed to staff and customers.<\/p>\n
Defence lawyer Jarred Scott said his client did not know the others in the car were armed.<\/p>\n
![\"Bruce]()
Bruce Tautari was jailed in March for his role in an aggravated robbery at Noel Leeming Waipapa. Photo \/ Police<\/p>\n
\u201cIf your Honour is going to infer he knew about the offensive weapons,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt what point did he learn of them?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if he knew when he drove, we don\u2019t know when he learned,\u201d Scott responded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey weren\u2019t driving into Waipapa and saying, \u2018Oh, I\u2019ll just drop in here and do an [aggravated robbery],\u2019\u201d Judge McDonald responded.<\/p>\n
Judge McDonald said someone got in the car with a shotgun, which would normally invoke a response.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would have asked, \u2018It\u2019s not duck hunting\/shooting season guys, where are we going? What are you doing with that gun?\u2019\u201d Judge McDonald said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not an innocent abroad who\u2019s been dragged along. He knew exactly what was going on. That\u2019s shown by the CCTV camera that checks that out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott also submitted Tautari should get a reduction for his youth, which Judge McDonald rejected.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just nonsense to say there is a youth discount for someone who\u2019s 24,\u201d Judge McDonald rebuked.<\/p>\n
Judge McDonald said he had the benefit of viewing all the evidence, and it was his view Tautari was fully aware of what was about to happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were found guilty at trial. You were disguised. Regardless of the other offenders, you were the driver,\u201d Judge McDonald said.<\/p>\n
\u201d… They carried out the terrifying aggravated robbery. It was done with some decisions that you knew exactly where to go, cellphones, the till. Knew how to subdue the shopkeepers and members of the public who were in there going about their Sunday shopping.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were quite deliberate about how you got in and where you drove.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou and your group of robbers got away with $15,231 worth of gear and none of it\u2019s been recovered.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tautari was sentenced to six years and five months\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n
Bruce Tautari, who was 21 at the time, was sentenced to three years and one month by Judge Brandt Shortland in March while a third person is awaiting sentencing.<\/p>\n
Shannon Pitman is a Whang\u0101rei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ng\u0101puhi\/ Ng\u0101ti P\u016bkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On that Sunday afternoon, masked and layered in hoodies, gloves and caps, Tautari drove a black Mazda packed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[11730,7814,138,4381,36426,1709,26663,209,78,296,14641,5126,88854,117681,75287,111,139,87400,69,1523,2170,27517,53377,20928,139159,2735,10809,176429,2044,38958,14191,241294,3608],"class_list":["post-479604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-afternoon","tag-armed","tag-business","tag-customers","tag-drawn","tag-electronics","tag-fired","tag-group","tag-in","tag-into","tag-jailed","tag-john","tag-leeming","tag-masked","tag-motion","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-noel","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-plan","tag-robbery","tag-screaming","tag-shotgun","tag-spilled","tag-store","tag-sunday","tag-tautari","tag-time","tag-waipapa","tag-weapons","tag-wellthoughtout","tag-were"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479604","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=479604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}