Bottle store robbery ends in jail

A ‘‘follower’’ has been encouraged to take charge of his life and lead it away from crime, but not before he serves a prison term for his part in a liquor store robbery.

Ricky Warbrick, 20, was sentenced in the Palmerston North District Court yesterday to two years and six months imprisonment for the aggravated robbery of Liquorland on College St in May last year.

The court heard how Warbrick was asked to join his three co-offenders in a premeditated attack to take cigarettes, alcohol and cash.

Judge Lance Rowe said the quartet were disguised in balaclavas and armed with a ‘slasher’ tool, which was used to intimidate staff.

One staff member was hit over the head during the robbery.

The group then fled in a stolen car.

Warbrick, who had a history of minor assaults and shoplifting, was supported by more than 20 friends and family in the public gallery, including his mother.

He did not plan the robbery, but joined his friends to impress them, the court heard.

Even though he was more of a follower than a leader, Judge Rowe said Warbrick continued to rob the store. Any member of the public could have walked in and been in serious danger.

He urged Warbrick to consider what was good for him when he was released from jail.

‘‘Your mother doesn’t want a son in jail.

‘‘She wants a son with a job, a son that one day might have children and be a good example for those children.

‘‘You’re not a person we should give up hope on.’’

Defence lawyer Steve Winter said Warbrick was an immature and unsophisticated teenager at the time of the robbery, but he now understood the consequence of his actions.