Pair found guilty of home invasion

Two men have been found guilty of tying up and robbing an Upper Hutt couple of thousands of dollars in cash after breaking into their home armed with sawn-off shotguns.

Jeremy Brian Gorinski, 34 and Dinesh Kumar Manoharan, 36, are both charged with the aggravated robbery of Malcolm and Yvonne Wiffen on June 19 last year and had pleaded not guilty.

The Crown said they broke into the Wiffens' Silverstream home, held guns to their heads, demanded money and gold, got into their safe and left them tied up on their living room floor with pillowcases on their heads. They left with between $50,000 and $70,000.

Both their lawyers had said the men were not at the scene of the crime and were never identified by the Wiffens.

The Wellington District Court jury had been out seven hours.

- © Fairfax NZ News