Invercargill mum drove getaway car

An Invercargill mother who drove the getaway car after her son's knifepoint robbery of a pharmacy was convicted of aggravated robbery yesterday.

Tracy Anne Palmer, 41, cleaner, admitted the charge when she appeared before Judge Graeme Noble in the Invercargill District Court.

The charge stems from her helping her son, Luke John Duncan, 21, commit the robbery of Woburn Pharmacy, in the Lower Hutt suburb of Waiwhetu, on January 14.

Judge Noble told Crown prosecutor Michael Morris he did not need to read the summary of facts, but to make a copy available to media.

The summary says Palmer and her son arrived in Wellington from Christchurch in December. About 4pm on January 14 she was driving her black Nissan Terrano around Waiwhetu with her son as a passenger. She parked the vehicle outside the pharmacy and went in.

During her two minutes in the store, she walked behind the front counter where pain medication was stored before wandering into the dispensary area used only by pharmacy staff.

When approached by a staff member, Palmer said "I'm just looking", the summary says.

She was then seen at the other entrance into the dispensary area, said to the staff member "oh, I'm in the wrong place" and left the store.

Minutes later her son ran into the pharmacy brandishing a knife.

He demanded the staff member empty the safe. He was given various-strength morphine sulphate tablets, methadone capsules and Oxynorm, a cancer drug derived from morphine, before running from the store.

He jumped into the passenger seat of his mother's vehicle and she drove off, the summary says.

Judge Noble remanded Palmer on bail to appear in the Lower Hutt District Court for sentence on November 18.

- © Fairfax NZ News