A Kiwi deported from Australia after racking up more than 30 convictions told New Zealand authorities he knew he would re-offend when he got back home, so thought he'd get it out of his system straight away.
Haihura Ward, 26, was one of the first batch of deportees sent from Australia in November last year after a hardline law change in late 2014 resulted in a surge in people being kicked out for criminal histories or on character grounds.
Ward had barely warmed his feet on New Zealand soil when he carried out a burglary of a Hamilton home on November 27, last year.
Ward arrived back in New Zealand on November 12 after being deported from Australia where he'd clocked up 36 convictions for offences including burglary, robbery, receiving and assault with intent to rob.
He was in Galbraith Ave in Hamilton just over two weeks later and spied a spade outside a house. He used it to jemmy open a window. After climbing through, the alarm went off. He fled and was found a short time later.
The court heard although Ward was born in New Zealand he'd spent the majority of his life in Australia.
Ward's lawyer Scott McKenna asked for his client to be given a time-served sentence as he'd already been behind bars for nearly five months.
"It doesn't appear anything has been taken, it doesn't appear that there was any significant damage caused, I would submit this is at the lower end of the scale."
But Judge Anthony Snell was concerned about his comments to probation staff who prepared his pre-sentence report.
"The comment that I found somewhat alarming was that since arriving in New Zealand, Mr Ward has offended within a matter of days, committing a burglary.
"He claims that he knew he would offend and thought he would commit a crime to get it out of his system, which is an unfortunate sort of a comment."
However, Ward had accepted that the victims would have felt violated by having him break into their home.
Ward was regarded as being at a high risk of harm to others and reoffending.
He'd also had a tumultuous time since his arrest last year having cut his electronic bracelet while on bail and then failing to turn up for his sentence in October.
Judge Snell jailed him for 15 months.