{"id":515522,"date":"2026-07-08T08:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T08:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/515522\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T08:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T08:51:10","slug":"bailey-royal-sentenced-for-80k-new-plymouth-jewellery-store-burglary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/515522\/","title":{"rendered":"Bailey Royal sentenced for $80k New Plymouth jewellery store burglary"},"content":{"rendered":"

He earlier admitted charges of burglary<\/a>, attempted unlawful use of a motor vehicle and two counts of unlawful use of a motor vehicle.<\/p>\n

The teens are being dealt with separately in the Youth Court and cannot be identified.<\/p>\n

According to a summary of facts, the offending began on January 27 when the group attempted to steal a vehicle parked on Beach St, Fitzroy. <\/p>\n

They broke into the car but were unable to start it and left empty-handed.<\/p>\n

The group then stole two vehicles from Strandon, which were later used in the burglary at Brownson Jewellers on Devon St.<\/p>\n

About 2.30am on January 28, they drove the stolen vehicles in convoy around New Plymouth\u2019s central business district, casing stores before settling on the jeweller.<\/p>\n

Just before 3.40am, they pulled up outside Brownson Jewellers in one of the vehicles. <\/p>\n

While the teens carried a metal pole, tyre iron and wrench, Royal kicked open the shop door and the group rushed inside.<\/p>\n

Despite the store alarm sounding, the four smashed glass display cabinets and filled bags with jewellery and watches.<\/p>\n

One of the offenders filmed the burglary as it unfolded.<\/p>\n

More than 100 items, valued at about $80,380, were taken. <\/p>\n

The group fled in the stolen car before later abandoning it and switching to the second stolen vehicle.<\/p>\n

They drove around New Plymouth before dumping that vehicle as well and returning to a residential address, where they assessed the stolen goods.<\/p>\n

About 10.30am the same day, New Plymouth police arrived at the address. All four offenders fled but were located and arrested nearby.<\/p>\n

Police recovered most of the jewellery stolen from Brownson Jewellers during a search of the property.<\/p>\n

\"AA group of young offenders broke into Brownson Jewellers in January 2026. Photo \/ Google Maps<\/p>\n

In court, defence lawyer Julian Hannam accepted Royal had been \u201ccruising around in stolen vehicles, looking for trouble\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does appear that the burglary was targeted at the jewellery shop, but more, an opportunity was taken. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut clearly they were out for trouble, and that\u2019s fully acknowledged, so a level of premeditation exists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hannam accepted other aggravating factors included the number of offenders involved, the damage caused to the shop and the significant quantity of goods taken.<\/p>\n

His submissions were directed at a sentence of home detention, highlighting Royal\u2019s adverse childhood experiences, other challenges he faced, and the 84 days he spent in custody and 40 days on electronically monitored (EM) bail.<\/p>\n

Police prosecutor Zane Webby accepted an end sentence of home detention could be reached, and said the jeweller had made an insurance claim, with an excess of $1000.<\/p>\n

Webby apportioned the excess equally between the four offenders, leaving Royal liable for $250 in reparation. <\/p>\n

Judge Thomas Ingram accepted Royal has faced several \u201cdifficulties\u201d in his life, \u201cmany not of [his] own making\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you know right from wrong and you know you weren\u2019t meant to be doing this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the judge said, to Royal\u2019s credit, he had admitted his involvement and expressed shame and remorse. <\/p>\n

Judge Ingram said that with Royal being the oldest of the group, it may seem he was the instigator, but that was not the case. <\/p>\n

He took a starting point of three years\u2019 imprisonment for the totality of the offending, then applied credit for Royal\u2019s guilty plea, background matters and time spent in custody and on EM bail. <\/p>\n

The judge then converted the end sentence of two years\u2019 imprisonment to 12 months\u2019 home detention.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not consider that a sentence of any less than 12 months\u2019 home detention could ever be appropriate for what\u2019s happened here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a serious set of circumstances and in my view the maximum sentence of home detention is appropriate. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re getting home detention as opposed to imprisonment because of the difficulties that you\u2019ve had in your life that other people don\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Ingram concluded the hearing with a final warning and a word of encouragement for Royal.<\/p>\n

He implored him to take the help offered by probation and make a genuine effort to turn his life around.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarry on with this kind of stuff, you\u2019re looking at a lifetime in prison, staring at the old guys in the yard and wishing that you hadn\u2019t got yourself where you end up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tara Shaskey is an assistant editor and reporter for the Open Justice team. She joined NZME in 2022 and has worked as a journalist since 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He earlier admitted charges of burglary, attempted unlawful use of a motor vehicle and two counts of unlawful…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[191324,7814,83056,9218,9767,6799,13849,55275,195672,2082,209,33262,25370,16285,1614,130,117,111,43,139,69,49267,23897,9855,5161,12633,4736,2735,5412,131,109558,102,256042],"class_list":["post-515522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-80k","tag-armed","tag-bailey","tag-before","tag-burglary","tag-cars","tag-citys","tag-cruising","tag-descending","tag-for","tag-group","tag-hour","tag-iron","tag-jewellery","tag-metal","tag-more","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-plymouth","tag-pole","tag-royal","tag-sentenced","tag-spent","tag-stolen","tag-store","tag-streets","tag-than","tag-tyre","tag-with","tag-wrench"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515522","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=515522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}