Getaway driver mum gets home detention

The mother of an Invercargill morphine addict was sentenced to home detention yesterday after admitting her unwitting involvement in a drug heist during a family holiday.

Tracy Anne Palmer, cleaner, of Invercargill, received six months' home detention after her appearance in the Wellington District Court.

She had earlier admitted involvement in the knife-point robbery of the Woburn Pharmacy in Lower Hutt in January by her 21-year-old son, Luke Duncan.

In his sentencing directions, Judge Ian Mill said the woman had been in the car while her son committed the robbery, and apparently had no knowledge the heist was about to take place.

"Out of a sense of loyalty, love and confusion, you became involved in assisting him, in waiting for him to come out and transporting him away," Judge Mill said.

Pharmacy staff had called police to the scene, who promptly arrested the mother and son when they came back, apparently to return the drugs.

"Effectively you assisted the police in solving the crime. Your son was arrested. The drugs were recovered," Judge Mill told her.

Her son was already back in jail in Invercargill, sentenced to three and a half years' jail for this charge, as well as another robbery on the holiday his mother and grandmother apparently didn't know about.

Defence lawyer Phil Mitchell said Palmer, Duncan and Palmer's mother had been taking a summer road trip around the North Island.

Duncan had recently been released from jail, emerging with a morphine addiction after his time inside, which his mother knew nothing about.

On the morning of the robbery, she woke with a headache, and stopped off at the pharmacy looking for pain-relief medication.

After finding the shop's painkillers, she realised she could get them much cheaper from the supermarket, Mr Mitchell said.

On her return to the car, her son announced he was a drug addict, donned a hoodie and proceeded to rob the store of 196 morphine tablets, 114 methadone capsules and 20 oxy-norm pills.

He returned to the car with the stolen medication and urged his mother to make a getaway.

After driving a short distance, she stopped the car and "blew up at him", then drove him back to the shop to return the stolen goods and try to make things right, Mr Mitchell said.

It was there they were arrested. Her son tried to take full responsibility and to spare his mother from any court action.

"Unfortunately, because she knew what was happening, she was party to the robbery," Mr Mitchell said.

- NZPA