No parole for gun thief
The man who stole 26 guns from Palmerston North’s central police station is not doing rehabilitation programmes in prison and has been assaulted while serving time.
The Parole Board this month declined Alan James Harris an early release from Manawatu¯ Prison. He is serving two years and three months’ jail for the brazen burglary of the police station on Anzac Day 2019.
He was high on methamphetamine when he walked into the station through an open garage door, after peering over the fence that morning.
He removed 26 guns, ammunition and cannabis from the evidence room, which he accessed by kicking down the door. He hid his stash in a neighbouring property before getting in a car.
But police spotted him loading the guns, and an officer asked him: ‘‘Hey, what are you up to?’’
Harris replied: ‘‘Nothing, what are you up to?’’
He took off, albeit with only some guns, despite police pointing pistols at him.
Police scrambled to lock down exits, while the police public relations machine and senior inspector Sarah Stewart worked to try to avoid the media becoming aware of the heist.
In a report provided to Stuff, the board said it had no confidence in Harris’ release plan.
He had done a short motivational programme, and his sentence included a plan to do drug treatment and a medium intensity rehabilitation programme. But, he had not taken up other opportunities.
‘‘He has, until recently, been disinclined to engage in any rehabilitation activities,’’ the board said.
He did, however, tell the board he wanted to do rehabilitation programmes outside of prison.
‘‘That at least acknowledged a need,’’ the board said.
But he had a history of poor compliance outside prison, giving the board ‘‘no confidence’’ he would complete rehabilitation there, before doing some in prison. Harris also told the board he had been attacked and ‘‘severely beaten up by other prisoners’’ in Hawke’s Bay Prison, hence a recent transfer to Manawatu¯ Prison.
The board urged Harris to rethink his position as it would give him a better chance of early release.
The board also wanted to know about Harris’ Australian criminal history, describing him as a ‘‘heavy drug user’’.
Harris moved to Australia as a baby, was jailed there in 2015 for aggravated robbery and deported to New Zealand under the returning offenders scheme.
He told someone before his sentencing, he stole the guns to pay for airfares for at least one of his five children, who he had to leave behind in Australia.
Harris will be seen by the board again before the end of May.