Anne Te Ao Rangimaria Dunster would break into homes and cars of elderly people and steal their wallets or bank cards. (file picture) Photo: RNZ / Patrice Allen
A former teacher targeted the homes of vulnerable elderly people to steal their bank cards and wallets, to spend their money on groceries, alcohol, and cigarettes.
In two separate sprees in 2021 and 2022, former teacher Anne Te Ao Rangimaria Dunster would break into the homes of eight elderly Thames residents, steal their wallets, bank cards or both, spending more than $3500.
On one occasion, she befriended an elderly man to give her a ride, only to steal the $15 cash he had in his car along with his bank card, which she then used to buy two packets of cigarettes at a petrol station.
Unaware of her deceit, he then happily dropped her off to her destination.
As well as eight burglary charges, she was sentenced on charges of using a document for pecuniary advantage - for using their bank cards in mostly paywave purchases, receiving property, and theft, for offending between 9 April, 2021 and when her Thames home was finally searched on 11 October, last year.
It was there police found her in possession of a woman's stolen purse containing a number of cards, but she refused to reveal how she ended up with it.
Asked about her actions, Dunster said she had "done things to pay bills".
The 34-year-old's lawyer, Mark Sturm, urged Judge Noel Cocurullo in Hamilton District Court to follow a pre-sentence report recommendation of intensive supervision.
Alternatively, he suggested he could reach a level where Dunster would qualify for home detention and asked that he allow her leave to apply.
Sturm described her offending as a "fall from grace". Before turning 30, she had never offended and was a teacher.
Dunster, who appeared via audio visual link from prison, had since "succumbed to addiction", he said.
Before going into custody three months ago, she had never been in prison and it had been hard, however, she was adjusting, he said.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Mark Ransley said the victims were all aged in their 70s and 80s and the offending had a "significant" effect on them.
The lengthy summary of facts reveal six of her eight burglaries occurred before midday, one as early as 5.45am.
In one burglary, she crawled underneath a garage door which was left open about a metre off the ground, other times she broke into vehicles to steal possessions.
Sometimes, once in possession of a card, her spending would be frenetic.
After breaking into one central Thames home at 7.15am on 2 August, 2021, Dunster began using the victim's paywave at the local Four Square supermarket by 7.30am, clocking up four purchases around town before 8am and totalling 21 that day, with the last at 11.01pm at the Gull Service Station.
On that one occasion she spent about $770, however the most one single victim lost was $1273.99, involving 38 transactions in Thames between 5 August and 1 September, last year.
On one occasion, Dunster was in Turangi and spent $213.38 on a victim's card until it was cancelled. She told police she found it on the ground outside a local health centre.
Aggravating her situation, Judge Cocurullo said, was her 2022 offending while on bail for earlier burglaries.
Her criminal history included four dishonesty convictions for which she received supervision both times.
"It's serious offending but the way the burglaries happened seem to be an entry without any great sophistication to it."
There was no prospect of reparation and after issuing discounts for guilty pleas, and her addiction issue, Judge Cocurullo arrived at a jail term of three years and five months.
* This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.