A 17-year-old who stormed a Michael Hill store with three others and fled with $378,000 worth of jewellery has managed to avoid prison after keeping out of trouble and having strong whānau support.

Chedin Thompson’s counsel Sacha Nepe said the now 18-year-old had since disassociated himself from bad influences and was now a young father.

It was on April 21, last year, between 8am and 11am, when a black Honda was stolen from the New World carpark in Papatoetoe. About 3pm that day, Thompson arrived at the Chartwell Shopping Centre as a passenger in the car with seven others.

With their hoods up and faces covered, Thompson went into the Michael Hill Jewellers armed with a screwdriver, while three co-accused had hammers. Two were carrying large bags.

The group set about smashing display cabinets and stealing a wide range of high-value items, including gold and diamond jewellery, and watches, before running out.

One youth offender was caught and held by a security guard.

Spotting that, Thompson ran back and held a hammer up in a threatening manner but the guard was able to shut the door to the store, so he ran off again.

A search warrant was executed at Thompson’s home on May 5 and police found his partner wearing a watch and bracelet stolen during the heist.

They also searched his partner’s phone and found photos of him wearing stolen property including a photo from the night of the robbery. There were also photos of a large quantity of stolen property still with the tags on.

When questioned by police, Thompson said: “I wasn’t even there”.

At his sentence indication hearing in August last year, Judge Glen Marshall indicated a start point of 5 years and 6 months prison with 20% discount for his guilty plea.

Nepe pushed for a total of 65% in discounts, made up of 20% for youth, and 20% for cultural and background factors, and 5% for remorse.

Nepe also explained a letter from his grandmother, who outlined his upbringing, which saw him in state care for several years, and witness to drugs, alcohol, and gang life.

“There’s a real nexus between this offending and Mr Thompson’s upbringing and background,” Nepe told the judge, “that involved domestic violence, drugs, alcohol, gang affiliations, state care and I say that these are significant factors for a young boy.”

She said if Thompson was sent to jail there would be no rehabilitation intervention available.

“There will be nothing there for him,” she said and urged the judge to allow him to serve home detention and help with the raising of his young baby.

Crown solicitor Kasey Dillon agreed the letter from Thompson’s grandmother was “one of the better ones” that he’d read, but asked the judge to keep the discount to 10%.

In total, he suggested a total of 45% in discounts and said any remorse would be captured by his guilty plea.

Judge Marshall said a presentence report assessed Thompson as being at low risk of reoffending or harming others.

While Judge Marshall described the teen’s offending as “very serious” he agreed with Nepe’s submissions.

However, rather than categorising discount for remorse, he instead contributed the 5% to Thompson’s efforts toward rehabilitation and the support from his whanau, who were in court.

He got down to 23 months and allowed a further 7 months' discount for time spent on electronically-monitored bail.

“You can help me by sticking to your sentence and not coming back to this court,” the judge told Thompson as he sentenced him to six months' home detention.

Thompson was also sentenced to 200 hours of community work in a bid to keep him busy while serving home detention.

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.