After helping to smash into a service station and stealing food and drinks, Diamante Kingi reversed a stolen car into a foodmart, causing the shop front to collapse.

Kingi and his cohort stole cigarettes, tobacco, ice creams, energy drinks, lollies, and chips from the Huntly Foodmart that morning, which was still boarded up after a similar incident earlier.

It wasn’t just Huntly the 19-year-old hit during a spree of smash and grabs around the Waikato in March last year.

A shopkeeper at Hamilton’s Rifle Range Rd Dairy has been left counting the psychological cost after Kingi and three others allegedly stormed in, wearing disguises and armed with a screwdriver and hammer, to steal cigarettes.

Police say “smash-and-grab” crimes are committed by groups of young people who target shops and petrol stations, and are “highly publicised and generate emotion with the community”.

“This type of offending is causing havoc and creating a ripple effect within our community,” they wrote in documents to the court.

A lot of the crime was being caused by more often “juvenile” offenders who repeatedly target the same premises.

“There are numerous insurance claims as a result of this type of offending, which is driving up everyone’s insurance premiums.”

Over several years, retailers had invested significant funding into crime prevention, including bollards and fog cannons, but that was having “little effect in deterring this type of behaviour”.

Kingi appeared in the Hamilton District Court for sentencing on multiple charges, ranging from unlawfully getting into a vehicle, aggravated burglary, unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, burglary, possession of a class C drug and a taser.

‘Morrinsville, Huntly, Ngāruawāhia, Hamilton’

Kingi’s offending began early on March 5, last year, when the glass electronic door of the Caltex in Morrinsville was wrenched open.

The group wore disguises, hoods up, balaclavas or masks, and were armed with either a tyre iron, socket wrench, or hammer. Once inside, they targeted the two tills and vape products.

While there was no cash in the tills, and the fog cannon was set off after they tried to open the cigarette cabinet, they found an entrance to an adjacent vape store and stole about $1000 worth of products.

Later that same day, the group hit Rifle Range Rd Dairy in Hamilton, wearing similar disguises and armed with a hammer and screwdriver.

They jumped the front counter and took cigarettes, tobacco pouches and $500 cash from the till.

The shopkeeper was uninjured but the business owner was left with a $2000 insurance excess.

The group caused $11,592.92 worth of damage in those two incidents alone.

Diamante Kingi's co-offenders outside the Huntly Foodmart at 3.11am on Sunday, March 9, last year. Photo / Police

Kingi and three others then allegedly stole a car from a Horotiu property on March 8 and used it early the following morning to head to Wills Automotive in Ngāruawāhia.

They smashed their way inside and stole food and drinks.

A short time later they drove to the Huntly Foodmart and Kingi reversed the stolen car into its front doors.

They ran into the store, wearing masks – but no gloves – and stole items including cigarettes, tobacco, energy drinks, ice creams, lollies, and chips.

The CCTV stopped working once the car smashed its way into the store.

Diamante Kingi, and two co-offenders caught on CCTV inside Ngāruawāhia's Wills Automotive in Durham St. Photo / Police

When police searched his house, they found a homemade taser, and 33.2g of cannabis individually packaged in 25 small bags.

In March, Kingi accepted a sentence indication from Judge Glen Marshall with a five-and-a-half year starting point, along with a 20% discount for his guilty pleas.

Crown solicitor James Lewis urged the judge to try to keep any additional discounts as low as possible, totalling no more than 25%.

He supplied three victim impact statements to the court from Caltex, Rifle Range Rd Dairy, and the stolen car owner, about the financial loss and “the impact it has had on them, mentally”.

He noted that the teen hadn’t had any family support “for quite some time”, and should get credit for his upbringing and youth.

Judge Marshall ultimately did that, allowing 10% for youth, 10% for his background, and 5% for remorse, as he had attended restorative justice conferences with some victims.

The judge jailed Kingi, who did not have any previous convictions, for three years.

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.