Job loss led to addiction, robberies
Lockdown wasn’t kind to Mohammed Mausheem.
He lost his job, became addicted to methamphetamine and, in a desperate bid to pay off his drug debts, he robbed two Hamilton banks and a dairy in a single day.
Mausheem, 27, wept silently in the dock on Tuesday as he was jailed for four years and two months at his sentencing in the Hamilton District Court.
The events that led up to a day of ‘‘very stupid choices’’ on September 30 – namely the armed robberies of the Westpac bank at the Chartwell shopping centre, the Kiwibank bank at Rototuna, and a dairy at Taupiri – were laid bare in court by Mausheem’s counsel Gerard Walsh.
Those circumstances included ‘‘discord in early life on the home front,’’ which had led to Mausheem being raised by his mother in South Auckland. He had attended a polytech in Manukau, and it was there that he fell in with some bad company and for a time dabbled in drugs, namely synthetic cannabis, the lawyer said.
After some drug counselling he had pulled his life back together and had been staying drug free for years – until an unexpected twist of fate this year.
‘‘The lockdown arrives, his job goes, and he suddenly has way too much time on his hands.’’
Mausheem began using methamphetamine – more than he was able to pay for. Faced with a growing need to pay his debts, Walsh said his client had taken some desperate measures.
‘‘He had nowhere left to turn but to make some very stupid choices . . . this is methamphetamine use and what it leads a person to.’’
On that day it led Mausheem to the front counter of the Westpac bank in Chartwell at 1.23pm. He was wearing a red and white bandanna and a backpack, from which he drew a replica gun.
‘‘Fill up the bag or I will shoot you,’’ he told the teller. She complied, and he ran off with just under $2000. At 5.15pm he used the same modus operandi at the Rototuna Kiwibank, which yielded a more modest haul of $442. Exactly two hours later the Taupiri Dairy in Te Putu St was his target.
Inside were the owners and their children, aged eight and six. Mausheem demanded cash and cigarettes and he obtained $105 of the former.
A panic alarm was activated. Mausheem fled, and was spotted soon after by police – who were on high alert following the robberies earlier in the day – heading north towards Huntly.
A pursuit ensued, at speeds of up to 170kmh, with Mausheem at times turning his car’s headlights off. The police Eagle helicopter, however, was on hand to keep track of him. Eventually Mausheem pulled over and took off on foot.
A police dog team was dispatched, and he was tracked, caught, arrested and charged with three counts of aggravated robbery and one each of reckless driving and failing to stop for police.
Judge Jonathan Down was armed with a cultural report, a pre-sentence report and a letter from Mausheem himself, in which he expressed his profound regret and apologies – many of which were to his own family, who were in court to learn of his fate first hand.