{"id":69312,"date":"2025-10-10T05:15:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T05:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/69312\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T05:15:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T05:15:08","slug":"burglary-getaway-driver-toma-arama-heta-appeals-to-halve-jail-sentence-citing-not-enough-discounts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/69312\/","title":{"rendered":"Burglary getaway driver Toma Arama-Heta appeals to halve jail sentence, citing not enough discounts"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first burglary<\/a>, Arama-Heta, then 26, dropped his 17-year-old co-offender at a property on Royal View Rd, Te Atat\u016b South, about midday on June 24, last year.<\/p>\n

He stayed in the car while his co-offender forced open a security door, went into the house, searching bedrooms and tipping out drawers<\/a>, before making off with jewellery and scarves.<\/p>\n

The pair then parked near Parkvale Grove about 90 minutes later, with Arama-Heta dropping off his co-offender, who then went into a nearby house.<\/p>\n

The resident was woken by a noise, went to investigate and was confronted by the intruder, who had a piece of metal.<\/p>\n

He demanded the resident\u2019s phone before ordering him to the ground and binding his hands with rope.<\/p>\n

He then forced him back to a bedroom to point out valuables, before putting a pillowcase over his head and asking where the safe was.<\/p>\n

The victim was then led to the garage and forced into the boot of his flatmate\u2019s car.<\/p>\n

The intruder then left and went back to where Arama-Heta had parked.<\/p>\n

The pair returned to the house, taking more items and putting them in the flatmate\u2019s car before the co-offender drove that car away, with the resident still in the boot.<\/p>\n

Arama-Heta followed and, when the other car came to a temporary stop, the victim managed to escape from the boot.<\/p>\n

He got into a short fight with the co-offender, who then got back into Arama-Heta\u2019s car, and they drove off.<\/p>\n

Arama-Heta was ultimately the only one prosecuted, as his co-offender died.<\/p>\n

He was charged with possessing cannabis for supply after police found 28 separate ziplock bags containing a total of 256g of cannabis.<\/p>\n

Judge Brooke Gibson, sentencing him in the District Court in June, took a starting point of four and a half years\u2019 jail before issuing a 20% discount for his guilty plea and 5% for remorse and willingness to participate in restorative justice.<\/p>\n

The 54-month starting point included four months for his previous criminal history and offending while on electronically monitored bail.<\/p>\n

Judge Gibson\u2019s sentence of 45 months included the 25% discount, plus four months for the cannabis charge.<\/p>\n

Arama-Heta\u2019s lawyer, Sumudu Thode, argued that the judge\u2019s starting point was too high and instead pushed for one of 34 months.<\/p>\n

She then argued for a further 15% discount for his background factors, and 10% for remorse and rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

\u2018Beyond the facts expressly admitted\u2019<\/p>\n

Justice O\u2019Gorman said the statement from the victim made it clear that Arama-Heta would not have seen him being put in the boot or anything that happened in the house.<\/p>\n

She said it wasn\u2019t appropriate to sentence Arama-Heta for the \u201cnature and severity of the violent conduct committed by his co-offender\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis goes beyond the facts expressly or implicitly admitted by Mr Arama-Heta\u2019s guilty plea.<\/p>\n

\u201cI consider it strays too far into guessing or speculating on matters beyond what was stated in the summary of facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

On that basis, she agreed with Thode on a 34-month starting point for the sentence, which encompassed the cannabis supply charge.<\/p>\n

She also agreed that a 5% discount for background factors was \u201cinadequate\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI consider this was an error because his personal background … shows substantial deprivation and lack of prosocial family support … including abuse and bullying leading to a drug and alcohol dependence and criminal activity from the age of 13.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arama-Heta was also committed to turning his life around and had felt ashamed of his actions and the impact they had on his two young children, she said.<\/p>\n

A pre-sentence report referred to him stating \u201cthat his partner and children are his primary motivation for maintaining an offence-free lifestyle\u201d.<\/p>\n

Justice O\u2019Gorman was \u201coptimistic\u201d that his post-offending insight followed the death of his co-offender and the sentencing consequences for his family.<\/p>\n

She quashed his 45-month jail term and replaced it with one of 23 months.<\/p>\n

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the first burglary, Arama-Heta, then 26, dropped his 17-year-old co-offender at a property on Royal View Rd,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5761,55335,23835,55337,55338,47067,9767,3944,45134,18981,19552,23966,26094,55336,16397,8454,296,1334,111,43,139,5006,69,8442,5763,1335,61,55334,5977],"class_list":["post-69312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-appeals","tag-aramaheta","tag-boot","tag-bound","tag-bundled","tag-burglaries","tag-burglary","tag-car","tag-citing","tag-discounts","tag-driver","tag-enough","tag-getaway","tag-halve","tag-homeowner","tag-including","tag-into","tag-jail","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-not","tag-nz","tag-prison","tag-sentence","tag-term","tag-to","tag-toma","tag-which"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69312","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=69312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}