Aggravated robbery — sentencing — R v Mako [2000] 2 NZLR 170 (CA). The defendant appeared for sentence having pleaded guilty to two charges of aggravated robbery. On the first occasion the defendant entered a store and waited for other customers to depart. He then covered his face and approached the staff member while brandishing a knife and making the staff member place a small amount of coins and notes in a bag. A month later the defendant entered another dairy where he threatened the shop assistant with a claw hammer and demanded money. The hammer was used to break open a cash register and strike the victim. The court applied R v Mako in determining that the applicable starting point for the first offense was that of a single defendant who is disguised and uses no actual violence. An uplift was applied in respect of the circumstances of the second offense where actual violence was used. In mitigation the court noted that the defendant was young at the time of offending, pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity and expressed remorse. The defendant was given an end sentence of four years and eight months' imprisonment. Judgment Date: 16 February 2018