A Police operation in the western area of the City District last week saw five people arrested and charged with 20 aggravated robberies that occurred in the Mt Roskill and Balmoral suburbs between April 16 and May 18.
All five alleged offenders will reappear in Court on June 15, two of them - a 15 and a 17 year-old - in the Youth Court as they have been jointly charged with aggravated robbery offences.
Avondale CIB anticipates there'll be further arrests and understands that victims of some further offences have not yet reported their experiences to Police.
Operation Time - so named because the alleged offenders often approached their victims and asked for the time - was executed on Wednesday and Friday last week when the five alleged offenders aged between 15 and 19 were arrested.
Police allege they confronted their victims - who were most often alone on streets in and around Mt Roskill and Balmoral - in the evening and made demands of them before assaulting them and/or threatening them with a knife.
They generally stole money, mobile phones, wallets and bank cards and demanded PIN numbers before leaving the victims. Police recovered a number of stolen items when executing the search warrants last week.
ENDS
Issued by Noreen Hegarty
Auckland City Police Communications Manager
Ph 09 302 6947 or 0274-951-589
Website: www.police.govt.nz