Serial armed robber jailed again
A man who led police on a weeks-long manhunt after threatening shop workers with weapons in brazen daylight robberies has been jailed.
Justin Wiremu Keremete, 51, earlier pleaded guilty in relation to a series of aggravated robberies across Canterbury during late March and early April last year.
The shops he targeted included a bank, a supermarket, a stationery shop and the Cashmere Club, stealing more than $12,000 cash in total.
He was sentenced to eight years, 11 months imprisonment by Justice Jonathan Eaton at the Christchurch High Court yesterday. He will serve at least five years before he is eligible for parole. The judge labelled Keremete’s long history of offending, which began as early as 1991, as “shocking.”
In statements to the court, his victims, many of whom were shop workers he threatened with weapons, painted a picture of fear, helplessness, loss of confidence in their workplaces and ongoing stress and anxiety, Justice Eaton noted. “It is all very well for you to say you wouldn’t have caused harm ... but your victims took your threats very seriously”, the judge told Keremete.
The string of robberies started on March 25 when he made off with $1495 from stationery store Pater Tree in St Martins. He was armed with a small pistol and a hatchet. The shop manager then told The Press Keremete casually walked into the store before telling staff to give him all the money from the till, or he would shoot them. He fled on a bicycle.
He also pleaded guilty to dishonestly taking an e-bike worth $11,500 the week earlier. On March 29, he stole NZ$2500 and A$2500 from the Travelex foreign exchange at Westfield Riccarton mall.
On April 8, he walked into the Cashmere Club armed with a hatchet. Two bar workers said they were terrified when an armed robber threatened them with an axe and demanded they fill a bag with cash during a birthday party. He left empty-handed.
On April 9, he walked into the Metromart in Strowan armed with a gun and a hatchet and took $2700 cash, cigarettes and tobacco. On April 10 he entered Fresh Choice Merivale and told staff he had a weapon. He demanded money from the till, and made off with $960. He also pleaded guilty to robbing ANZ Bank in Rangiora of about $2000 with a firearm.
Keremete’s offending dates back 25 years. He’d been out of prison for just six months when he began offending again.
Preventive detention is an indeterminate prison sentence. Prisoners may be released on parole but remain managed by Corrections for the rest of their life and can be recalled to prison at any time.