{"id":73682,"date":"2025-10-12T11:02:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T11:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/73682\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T11:02:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T11:02:10","slug":"whangarei-home-invader-levi-tangimetua-loses-appeal-over-jail-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/73682\/","title":{"rendered":"Whang\u0101rei home invader Levi Tangimetua loses appeal over jail term"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victim manhandled to ground<\/p>\n

On February 16, 2024, Tangimetua was at an address in Whang\u0101rei when he crossed the road to the elderly man\u2019s property.<\/p>\n

The man was carrying out renovations and the pair did not know each other.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old knocked on the door before letting himself in.<\/p>\n

As he came into the kitchen, he grabbed the victim, manhandling him to the ground while yelling, \u201cGet on the f***ing ground\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tangimetua<\/a> then punched the victim at least twice to the face and used a painting sheet and T-shirt to tie the man\u2019s hands behind his back.<\/p>\n

He then demanded the Pin number to the man\u2019s credit card, took his keys and left in the victim\u2019s car.<\/p>\n

The victim managed to escape to a neighbouring address for help and police were called.<\/p>\n

Tangimetua was pulled over by police a short time later and told them the car was \u201clegit\u201d and his \u201cold man gave me his keys\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat, of course, was a load of rubbish,\u201d Judge John McDonald<\/a> said at his sentencing in December last year.<\/p>\n

When police asked Tangimetua how the man got his injuries, he responded, \u201cyou know what I mean, OT styles\u201d, in reference to the suburb of Otangarei in Whang\u0101rei.<\/p>\n

\"LeviLevi Tangimetua referred to the suburb of Otangarei when questioned by police over the home invasion. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

Tangimetua had also been drinking and blew a level of 883mcg of alcohol per litre of breath, more than double the legal limit.<\/p>\n

The victim sustained bruising to his head, a suspected fractured cheek, extensive swelling to his teeth, bruising on his arms and a bleeding mouth.<\/p>\n

\u2018He had no chance against you\u2019<\/p>\n

Judge McDonald<\/a> set a starting point of nine years\u2019 imprisonment, citing the victim\u2019s vulnerability, the home invasion and violence to the head.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was 82 years old, he had no chance against you. You would have been able to walk in and just flex your muscles and yell at him and he would have given up, but you decided no, to give him the bash, when there was absolutely no need,\u201d Judge McDonald said at the sentencing.<\/p>\n

He gave a 25% discount for guilty pleas and Tangimetua\u2019s adverse upbringing, resulting in the final sentence of six years, nine months.<\/p>\n

Tangimetua appealed, arguing the starting point should have been eight to eight-and-a-half years, and that his psychological history \u2013 including abuse, neglect and childhood trauma \u2013 warranted a further 5 to 10% discount.<\/p>\n

His lawyer, Sumudu Thode, submitted the total reduction should have been 50 to 55%, bringing the sentence down to three years and seven months.<\/p>\n

But in a recently released decision, the Court of Appeal disagreed.<\/p>\n

It found the original sentence was stern but within range, noting Judge McDonald could have added time for Tangimetua\u2019s extensive criminal history and excess breath alcohol.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe acknowledge that another judge might have given Mr Tangimetua a greater discount than 5% for his background factors. But it could have been nowhere near the discounts Mrs Thode submits are appropriate,\u201d the decision said.<\/p>\n

\u201cStanding back and considering the totality of Mr Tangimetua\u2019s offending, we conclude that the end sentence of six years and nine months\u2019 imprisonment was not manifestly excessive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The appeal was dismissed.<\/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":"Victim manhandled to ground On February 16, 2024, Tangimetua was at an address in Whang\u0101rei when he crossed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[57878,74,6375,57880,55337,57879,1345,40551,17702,1334,101,57876,11517,111,43,139,69,1523,814,57881,24002,57877,1335,20424,1869,6123],"class_list":["post-73682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-82yearold","tag-after","tag-appeal","tag-bloodied","tag-bound","tag-bruised","tag-home","tag-invader","tag-invasion","tag-jail","tag-left","tag-levi","tag-loses","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-property","tag-renovating","tag-stranger","tag-tangimetua","tag-term","tag-violent","tag-whangrei","tag-while"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73682","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=73682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}