Judge Tom Gilbert sentenced Joshua James Allan, 38, to two years’ imprisonment for his involvement in the attempted robbery at the Christchurch dairy on June 5, 2018.
Allan was found guilty by a jury during a two-day trial in October last year. Judge Gilbert said the jury’s verdict was understandable as there was “overwhelming evidence of Allan’s involvement” in the robbery.
Allan and his co-offender, Jamal Richard Lawson, entered the Selwyn dairy in Addington about 12pm. Both wore hoodies over their heads and their faces were covered.
Lawson threatened the owner with a 25 centimetre-long knife at the counter and tried to grab the cash register. The owner hit the panic button and chased the would-be robbers from the shop with a softball bat.
He noted the registration number of the getaway car and called police. Police found the car and two men within 25 minutes.
The Crown described the dairy owner as a hero for acting so quickly.
Lawson pleaded guilty after the attempted robbery, but was released on supervision after spending so long in custody on remand that he would have already served his whole jail sentence.
Allan denied being the second man caught on security camera footage and pleaded not guilty to the charge of attempted robbery.
Judge Gilbert had strong words for Allan during his sentencing on Thursday, saying the pre-sentence report submitted was “one of the worst he has seen in recent times”. According to the report, when asked who the victim of the crime was, Allan replied: “Me, because I can’t get a job now”.
The report said Allan refuses to wear a GPS ankle bracelet should he be released on electronic monitoring and he will not participate in any rehabilitation programme that requires more of his time than one day a week.
Allan denied he had said this.
Judge Gilbert said there were no mitigating factors that could be taken into account when considering the sentence.
