{"id":583878,"date":"2026-08-29T09:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T09:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/583878\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T09:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T09:32:11","slug":"hamilton-shoplifter-says-she-can-go-where-i-want-after-being-caught-by-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/583878\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamilton shoplifter says she can \u2018go where I want\u2019 after being caught by police"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, she appeared for sentencing in the Hamilton District Court<\/a> before Judge Glen Marshall on charges of burglary, shoplifting, unlawfully taking a motor vehicle, possession of cannabis, fantasy substances and meth.<\/p>\n

The first incident happened in May last year after Ngahere and a friend had wrapped up a night partying in the city\u2019s nightclubs. <\/p>\n

The pair were keen to go home and came across a man whom they asked for a lift. <\/p>\n

He agreed and they directed him where to go. <\/p>\n

They ended up pulling him from the Holden Colorado and leaving him near Dixon Rd before driving off in his ute.<\/p>\n

They were spotted driving at speed along Mill St at 3.30am and police later found the vehicle abandoned near Maeroa Rd.<\/p>\n

The pair were also found and Ngahere still had the keys on her.<\/p>\n

While the ute was found, the man\u2019s tools, worth about $10,000, were missing.<\/p>\n

From September 25 to November 11 last year, Ngahere stole clothing and other items totalling $4851.76 from Woolworths Rototuna, Farmers Chartwell, Baby Factory Hamilton, Postie Plus Chartwell, Four Square Fairfield, Mitre 10 Te Rapa and Stirling Sports Te Awamutu.<\/p>\n

Given Ngahere\u2019s criminal history, she has been trespassed from several Hamilton businesses, so when she was caught stealing she was charged with the upgraded count of burglary.<\/p>\n

In court, Ngahere\u2019s counsel David Venter said his client had spent nearly nine months in custody and had attended a restorative justice conference with the owner of the Holden.<\/p>\n

She had spent years in and out of custody and \u201chas a fairly lengthy history\u201d, the court heard. <\/p>\n

The trouble was, when she got out of jail she would \u201cfall back to her old ways… and end up with the wrong people\u201d because she didn\u2019t have a support network, Venter said.<\/p>\n

He said she was keen to attend a rehabilitative facility, which would provide a supported and structured environment and help change her ways and get a job.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d had a meeting with the manager of a charity organisation in prison this week, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Venter suggested to Judge Marshall that he impose a time-served sentence so she could go straight there to connect.<\/p>\n

The judge said he couldn\u2019t simply \u201cengineer\u201d discounts to suit his client.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it coincides, it coincides,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, he indicated he would grant her leave to apply for home detention if a suitable facility became available.<\/p>\n

Venter accepted that was fair.<\/p>\n

In sentencing Ngahere, Judge Marshall labelled her offending a \u201cspree\u201d and found an overall starting point of 25 months\u2019 jail was appropriate.<\/p>\n

He was prepared to give her another 10% discount, noting she was keen to turn her life around.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing is, a lot of it depends on you.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court just can\u2019t provide you with everything, and the resources in the community are limited.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to seize any opportunity you get.\u201d<\/p>\n

After getting down to 17 months, he added three months for her \u201chorrific\u201d criminal history.<\/p>\n

He then jailed her for 20 months and granted her leave to apply for home detention.<\/p>\n

Despite police seeking reparation of about $15,000, Judge Marshall declined to order it as she had no means to pay.<\/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":"This week, she appeared for sentencing in the Hamilton District Court before Judge Glen Marshall on charges of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,682,3595,198,9525,124,71,29419,6288,29540,111,139,69,675,19429,312,20863,4733,213,4744,6859,4524,5828,540],"class_list":["post-583878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-after","tag-being","tag-by","tag-can","tag-caught","tag-could","tag-from","tag-go","tag-hamilton","tag-kmart","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-police","tag-recidivist","tag-says","tag-she","tag-shoplifter","tag-sports","tag-stealing","tag-told","tag-want","tag-wanted","tag-where"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583878","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=583878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}