Have Your Say

Twin sisters raised in a family of shoplifters say they were told to go out and steal their food as children because their mother spent all their money on drugs and alcohol.
Now 24, Courtney Habib said stealing is “just a way of life” for her while her identical twin Carmen Habib said she was “never happy” shoplifting with her family.
This week the twins appeared in the Manukau District Court to be sentenced, one after another, for a string of thefts from supermarkets across Auckland over five years.
Courtney stole, sometimes with her sister, other family members or associates, more than $23,000 worth of groceries from Woolworths supermarkets across Auckland. Carmen stole a total $5600.

Carmen’s lawyer Kevin Lamb told the court about the twins’ upbringing.
“We’re not trying to push the emotional too much, ma’am, but this family was absolutely ravaged by alcohol and drugs.”
The defendants did not have enough food growing up as their mother spent all her money on “substances”.
The twins were told to go out and steal if they wanted to eat, he said.
Judge Frances Eivers also acknowledged how the twins’ hardship fed into their offending as adults.
“You were essentially taken out to steal from shops from the age of 10,” she said.
Courtney’s lawyer Elizabeth Gresson said shoplifting was a learned behaviour for the twins and it was their family’s “modus operandi”.
“She was encouraged throughout her childhood to enter into this form of activity,” Gresson said. “She was influenced by older family members and that included, unfortunately, her mother.”
This “form of dishonesty” became normalised, which she said made her client less at fault for her crimes.

In custody for the first time, she confronted what she had done and the consequences of being separated from her children.
The judge addressed this turning point and commended Courtney for sticking to the conditions of 232 days of electronically monitored bail since being released.
“[Your children] were who you focused on and who you focused on when you were in custody,” she said.

The judge warned Courtney that if she did not change her ways her children would follow the same pattern of learned criminal behaviour.
“This is what your own children are going to do … because they don’t know any different.”
She shortened the twins’ sentences for their guilty pleas, youth, background and willingness to pay back what they owed.
She also took into account the effect incarceration would have on their children.
Courtney was sentenced to seven months’ home detention and ordered to engage in Corrections’ career and budgeting programmes.
The nearly $24,000 owed to Woolworths would take “years and years” to pay off, the judge said, so she reduced the amount to $10,000, which is to be repaid in weekly instalments.
“Which is still a lot,” Judge Eivers said.

For two charges of driving while disqualified in March and May of last year, Courtney was convicted, discharged and disqualified for six months.

Despite ‘struggles’ a close family
Judge Eivers said Carmen had the “same struggles” growing up as her twin sister.
She was sentenced to eight months’ home detention and ordered to pay reparation of $5600 in weekly instalments.
The judge thanked the twins’ whānau for filling the court’s public gallery in support.
“I see … you are a close family despite the difficult circumstances in the past.”

hmm. That is a sob story and a half.