��һ�ǿ�����

A driver lost on Christmas Eve thought he’d found help when a stranger stopped to check on him but the roadside encounter escalated into a violent kidnapping where he was beaten and forced to buy pies for his attackers.

During the ordeal, the victim was scared he would be shot if he didn’t comply and was dragged out of the car at one stage and beaten.

Now, one of the people involved, Kava Peihopa, 17, has been sentenced in the Whangārei District Court on one charge each of kidnapping, aggravated robbery and unlawfully taking a motor vehicle.

The teen avoided a jail term after the judge gave him an “enormous” discount, saying 17-year-olds did not belong in prison unless it was “absolutely imperative”.

The Christmas Eve kidnapping

On December 24 last year, the victim was travelling north when his phone went flat, leaving him lost.

While parked on the roadside and trying to figure out his next move, Peihopa approached and asked the victim if he was okay.

He said he was and Peihopa left.

Shortly after, another man arrived and allegedly demanded to search the victim’s vehicle, which he refused.

In response, the man told the victim he was not leaving and allegedly blocked a nearby bridge with a vehicle.

Peihopa then returned in his car with two others, all armed with steel bars.

Police allege the man smashed the driver’s window before the victim was dragged out of the car and beaten, leaving him so dazed that he struggled to stand.

Peihopa took the victim’s phone while one of the other people in the group allegedly demanded his PIN, which the victim gave.

They forced the victim into Peihopa’s car and drove around Whangārei, demanding to know where he lived and worked.

The victim told police it looked like one of the men had a gun but he was not sure.

“He was scared if he didn’t do as you say so in four seconds, he’d be shot,” Judge Gus Andrēe Wiltens said.

The group returned to the original location and got into the victim’s car with the victim.

They continued to drive around the city and made him buy alcohol, pies and cigarettes from a liquor store and service station.

The judge gave Peihopa a significant discount off his sentence. Photo / ��һ�ǿ�����

CCTV captured Peihopa with the victim inside the stores while the others waited in the car.

The victim was eventually released in Raumanga and drove straight to a petrol station to call police.

Peihopa’s lawyer, Jarrod Griffin, fought for a sentence of home detention, noting his client is only 17, with no criminal record and has completed several rehabilitation programmes since the offending.

“I am urging your honour to consider home detention for this young man in consideration of the crushing effect of a sentence of imprisonment and what that would mean for this young man,” Griffin told the court.

“It would be a real shame if the outcome was a custodial one.”

Crown lawyer Ina Stewart acknowledged Peihopa’s age and lesser role but argued he wasn’t merely “along for the ride”.

“He’s been involved in the physical violence,” she said.

Judge Andree Wiltens agreed imprisonment would be crushing and applied a significant discount to the starting point of five years and three months.

“I’m giving you a discount of 62 and a half per cent, which is enormous,” the judge said.

“The Government of the day say I shouldn’t do that – they passed legislation to make sure judges can’t do that unless it’s manifestly unjust.

“And in this situation, and bearing in mind your circumstances, I would say that is the case. Seventeen-year-olds don’t deserve to be in jail really, unless it’s absolutely imperative and it’s not in your case.”

Peihopa was sentenced to 12 months of home detention followed by 12 months of intensive release conditions.

“The first 12 months is punitive and the next 12 months is designed to try and help you to make sure there’s no repetition of this. I hope you take that.”

Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ngāpuhi/ Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined ��һ�ǿ����� in 2023.