• Jeffery-Lee Morunga-Pay was sentenced to seven years in prison on charges including aggravated robbery and kidnapping.
• Morunga-Pay assaulted victims with a knuckle-duster and wheelbrace, demanding money and property.
• Judge Gordon Matenga said the offending had the hallmarks of gang offending and extortion.

A gang member smiled in the dock as a judge described him assaulting victims with a knuckle-duster and a wheelbrace and kidnapping one who supposedly owed him money.

Jeffery-Lee Morunga-Pay appeared in the Napier District Court for sentencing on eight charges described by Crown prosecutor Clayton Walker as “classic gang tactics, driven by the gang code and the gang lifestyle”.

The 25-year-old Mongrel Mobster smiled through much of his court appearance up to, and including, the moment when Judge Gordon Matenga sent him to prison for seven years.

The most serious charges were aggravated robbery and kidnapping but also included wounding and injuring with intent.

In February last year, Morunga-Pay walked into a social gathering in a garage of a Flaxmere, Hastings property, hiding the knuckle-duster that he carried on his right hand.

He told a man there that he owed him money, and then, when told the victim had no money, delivered a “forceful blow” to his face with the knuckle-duster, causing it to bleed.

The victim had no choice but to hand over the keys to his Jaguar car parked outside, which he had bought for $3000 from another man who would shortly become another of Morunga-Pay’s victims.

He took the first victim in the Jaguar to his own house, where he showed him a lawn and made comments that he was going to bury the man there, making him fearful for his safety.

Other men were gathered there and the victim understood more were coming.

Morunga-Pay demanded to know where he got the Jaguar, and was then told to call the seller of the vehicle, before being kicked in the face. Morunga-Pay also stabbed him in the shoulder with a sharp object, causing a minor injury.

The seller of the Jaguar arrived. He paid Morunga-Pay $1000 and agreed to assign ownership of the vehicle into his name.

Morunga-Pay visited the seller of the Jaguar some time later at his home and threatened him with a screwdriver.

The man was afraid and felt he had no option but to hand over his caravan.

The court was told Morunga-Pay had also been taking $200 a week from another man, supposedly in payment of a debt. The man had been paying to “avoid trouble”, the judge said.

Morunga-Pay went to the man’s house and told him his payment was $100 short.

He pulled out a wheelbrace and struck him in the face, causing a 2-3cm cut to the cheek down to the bone.

Judge Matenga said the offences were particularly serious and required a deterrent sentence.

He said Morunga-Pay was aged 24 when he committed the crimes, close to the upper age where a discount on sentence might be given for his youth.

The judge declined to give such a discount, saying: “This offending does not have the hallmarks of recklessness of youth. This has all the hallmarks of gang involvement and extortion.”

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.