Car handed over after threat

A PATCHED gang member and a grandmother narrowly avoided jail terms after standover tactics resulted in a woman giving up her car.

Black Power member Poutokomanawa Hapi (24) and Dawn Mokomoko (52) drove to the victim’s house on the afternoon of April 11 last year.

Mokomoko — a grandmother with significant health issues — went to the house to speak to the resident, whom she knew through a mutual friend, while Hapi waited in the car.

Mokomoko told the woman she had been lying about her relationship with someone who owed the gang money.

Because of that, the debt was now transferred to her, she said.

If she did not pay them $4000 or hand over the keys to the car there were ‘‘two carloads of gang members waiting round the corner’’, Mokomoko told the woman.

They would assault her, and her daughter and granddaughter too — they knew where they lived, Mokomoko told her.

The victim’s expartner would get ‘‘a kicking’’ too.

The woman began crying, telling Mokomoko she was ill and the 1994 Toyota Rav4 was her only means of transport.

The Dunedin District Court heard this week the victim’s pleas had some effect on the female defendant, who went to the car to discuss a 24hour extension with Hapi.

‘‘There was a brief but agitated conversation’’ between them, Judge Michael Crosbie said.

It resulted in Mokomoko returning to the house and demanding the car keys.

Fearing for her safety, the woman handed them over.

Once the pair had left, the victim called police, who quickly found the vehicle at a Black Power pad in Pine Hill.

Officers followed Hapi, who drove to Moray Pl, but when they pulled him over he refused to get out of the Toyota.

It took four officers to overpower him and place him under arrest.

Hapi was abusive and refused to give police the pin number to his cellphone, which resulted in a charge being laid under the Search and Surveillance Act.

After an aborted trial earlier this year, the man admitted the charge as well as counts of resisting police and being a party to the theft.

Mokomoko pleaded guilty to theft.

‘‘The thing I’m singularly unimpressed with is the gang element,’’ Judge Crosbie said.

While Mokomoko only had a couple of historic convictions, Hapi had several convictions for violence.

‘‘You’re lucky not to be going to prison. It’s about as close as it can get,’’ the judge said.

It was Hapi’s ‘‘last crack’’, he said.

The pair were each sentenced to three months’ community detention and nine months’ supervision.

Mokomoko was sentenced to 150 hours’ community work, while Hapi was sentenced to 180 hours.