A thief with a penchant for e-bikes, clothing and Calvin Klein underwear has been sent to prison with a message from the judge that this kind of offending won’t be tolerated.

“The summary of facts sets out the nature of your offending which has a rather central theme of entitlement and arrogance in my observation,” Judge Paul Geoghegan told Leonard Smart as he was jailed for 18 months in the Tauranga District Court on Wednesday.

Judge Geoghegan said “a clear message needs to be sent that this sort of almost casual offending against retailers and members of the public needs to be met with a stern response.”

Smart’s offending, which spanned December 2022 to September 2023, involved the theft of three e-bikes, an electric scooter, clothing, including $400 worth of Calvin Klein underwear, and $700 worth of goods from Rebel Sport.

On separate occasions, the 35-year-old cut padlocks off three e-bikes and an e-scooter that had been left outside supermarkets and shopping malls.

Judge Geoghegan said it had caused the owners distress and inconvenience.

One was a 16-year-old girl who’d ridden her e-bike from school to the Bayfair Shopping Mall and had returned to find it missing, with the padlock and helmet discarded nearby.

None of the stolen e-bikes, nor the e-scooter, had been recovered.

The judge was particularly scathing of Smart’s thieving from Rebel Sport - he had gone into the Tauranga store with another man and two children and, as they walked around the aisles with the children in a trolley, he had hidden footwear underneath the children before leaving the store without paying. They’d also concealed items in a bag they’d taken in and put in the trolley.

Judge Geoghegan said it had been “particularly despicable” for Smart to use children to “further [his] offending”.

Smart had stolen from Rebel Sport on a further occasion, taking around $700 worth of clothing.

On another occasion, at a Farmers store near Tauranga, Smart had attempted to steal two hoodies but had been stopped by security. He gave them back but, on his way out, grabbed seven T-shirts and ran out of the store and across the carpark.

“So in those circumstances, even though you’ve been stopped by security and were made to return some stolen items, you’ve stolen some further items on the way out,” Judge Geoghegan said.

The judge said pre-sentence reports had not depicted a “flattering situation”.

Report writers had been critical of Smart, indicating he had attempted to minimise his role in the thefts, blaming others for his offending, and was not interested in changing his behaviour.

The judge acknowledged Smart had been to restorative justice, and that may have given the victim some degree of closure.

But Smart’s tendency to blame others, and cite their bad influence on him, didn’t fly with Judge Geoghegan.

“All I’ll say in respect of that Mr Smart is you’re 35 years old. I might accept that coming from an 18-year-old, but you’re a 35-year-old with four children.”

His lack of ability to take responsibility was concerning, the judge said.

Smart had sought a sentence of home detention, but this was denied due to the proposed address being known by police as a “drug house”, where drug offending was known to occur.

Smart was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment, which had included a discount for his guilty plea.

He granted leave to apply for his sentence to be converted to home detention if he could find a more suitable address.

Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.