When two masked men wielding hammers burst into her dairy, Micky Zheng ran to a back room and frantically tried to lock the door behind her.

But she was chased and in what she described as a fight for her life, she struggled with the door against the force of the offender who was trying to push it open to get to the mother-of-three.

She wasn’t only trying to protect herself. Already in the room were her young children and elderly mother.

“I was just so scared. It was so horrible,” Zheng, who managed to secure the door, told NZME.

“I think if I didn’t go inside and lock the door, what would happen to them?”

The offenders raided the New Plymouth shop as the family waited in safety. Zheng had the remote to the fog cannon with her. She pushed it once - twice - but nothing happened. Finally, on the third push, it went off and Zheng saw through security footage the store filled with smoke and the offenders finally leave.

It’s been four months since the February 4 aggravated robbery of the Highlands Local Dairy but Zheng still trembles when she talks about it.

She works in fear every day that at any moment she could be robbed again. It was the third time she had been robbed in the 14 years of owning the dairy.

Selling the business wasn’t an option for Zheng.

“I need to work and support my family. But I still feel scared. This job is most dangerous.”

She’s not wrong. Dairy robberies are escalating across the nation and late last year one resulted in the death of an Auckland worker.

What has provided Zheng with some relief is that one of the offenders in the recent robbery of her store is now behind bars.

Jeremiah Matthew John Thomas, 19, appeared in the New Plymouth District Court this week to face an admitted charge of aggravated robbery.

He was jailed for two years and nine months.

Jeremiah Thomas appeared in the New Plymouth District Court on Wednesday. Photo / Tara Shaskey

The court heard that Thomas and his co-offender, who is yet to be caught, pulled up outside the Highlands Local Dairy around 8.45pm.

They exited the vehicle, both in full disguise, and entered the shop while brandishing hammers.

One of them ran behind the counter and the other jumped over the countertop.

That was when Zheng ran and hid.

The pair made off with an assortment of cigarettes and the till drawer which contained more than $1000.

Thomas was on a sentence of intensive supervision when he committed the crime. After he was caught, he was put on electronically monitored bail until he cut off his bracelet and absconded for a time.

At his sentencing, he stood in the dock barefoot. He bowed his head.

There was no support in the gallery for him until partway through the hearing when two of his friends rushed in.

Thomas lit up when he saw them and when he was taken away to begin his prison sentence shortly after, he and his friends made heart gestures at each other with their hands through the glass.

Crown prosecutor Rebekah Hicklin had sought a start point of four years and six months imprisonment.

She accepted the teen was entitled to discounts for factors including his guilty plea, youth and background, ending with a sentence of around two years and three months.

When Thomas was arrested, police found $354 on him and Hicklin argued that the seized cash be paid to Zheng, which defence lawyer Nathan Bourke did not oppose.

Bourke did oppose, however, his client being locked up.

He sought a start point of four years imprisonment and argued that following discounts, home detention could be an option.

Bourke made comprehensive submissions around the link between Thomas’ “horrific” upbringing and his offending.

He has been in the system since he was around one month old, lacked attachments and had turned to drugs and alcohol.

“Here you have very causative links . . . They’re inherently, intrinsically linked.”

Bourke said Thomas had been failed by the system and to send him to jail would only fail him again.

“This isn’t a scientific submission, sir. If he goes to prison, he will be a prime candidate to be preyed upon by gangs,” he told Judge Gregory Hikaka.

“The reality is, that’s where young people find attachment.”

Bourke said it would only “doom” Thomas to a life of crime.

He submitted the goal should be to heal and rehabilitate Thomas and that would not occur behind bars given the pressures prisons were under in New Zealand.

Judge Hikaka said that was where the problem lies.

The Department of Corrections should look to the prison systems of other countries, such as Norway and Sweden, on how to successfully transition offenders back into the community, the judge suggested.

Incarceration was an ideal time for offenders to focus on things like numeracy, literacy, and general life skills to assist with their rehabilitation, he said.

Ultimately, the crime Thomas committed “doesn’t get much worse” and jail time was inevitable, the judge ruled.

Now, it was up to Corrections to provide him with the support and training he needed to reintegrate, he said.

“I’m hoping my comments about where rehabilitation should be focused intensely in your case will be given some weight.”

It was ordered that the $354 found on Thomas be paid to Zheng. His fines were remitted and he was prohibited from owning a firearm.

Following the sentencing, Taranaki Detective Sergeant Heath Karlson welcomed the outcome.

He described the robbery as a “particularly violent event”.

“[Thomas] was identified early on as an offender and the investigation team was relieved when he was located and charged with the offending.”

Karlson said serious violent offending continued to be a priority for Taranaki police and resources would continue to be allocated to investigate and hold to account those who commit crimes against the community.

Tara Shaskey joined the NZME in 2022 as a news director and Open Justice reporter based in Taranaki. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff where she covered crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Māori issues.