Six-year prison term for robber

Press, 19 December 1989, Page 24

Six-year prison term for robber

PA Auckland A man has been jailed for six years for aggravated robbery of a Hobsonville video shop. In the High Court at Auckland, Allan Peter Hastings, aged 20, unemployed, of Hobsonville, was jailed by Mr Justice Sinclair, who described an attack on a shop customer during the armed robbery as “cowardly and dastardly.” Hastings was also sentenced to six years jail, to be served concurrently, for the aggravated wounding of a 32-year-old woman customer. He had earlier pleaded guilty to the charges in the North Shore District Court. Mr Justice Sinclair said the events of the robbery were due to Hastings’ selfindulgence. The Court heard he drank 12 bottles of beer, a bottle of wine

and. took four valium tablets before he decided to rob the store on September 16. Armed with a rifle, he demanded money from the proprietor, Mr lan Sheirtcliff, and took $5Ol. “When you held up the video library, you expressed your disgust at the amount available and took it out on the proprietor and a customer,” His Honour said. The woman suffered head injuries requiring 25 stitches after Hastings hit her with a rifle butt. “The proprietor has got himself into a state where he cannot bring himself to be in the shop and has since disposed of it,” His Honour said. Hastings’s age and the fact that it was his first violent offence saved him from a longer prison term.