New Zealand Man Pleads Guilty to Auckland Casino Robbery

A New Zealand judge has accepted the guilty plea of a man who will remain behind bars stemming from an incident that involved a robbery at SkyCity Casino in Auckland. 

The Guilty Party

The man who pled guilty is Eru Andrew Stevens, 58. He has a long arrest record and a history of mental illness, including schizophrenia. 

Stevens claims he was in the midst of a schizophrenic episode during the Sept. 9, 2023 incident, which involved him going into the casino, walking to the cashier's cage, and demanding money. 

He gave the cashier a note that read: “Hand the money over. I’ve got a gun.”

The staff handed him several NZ$50 bills and hit a button alerting security. 

The cashiers asked Stevens how much he wanted, but he didn’t reply. At first, he walked away from the cage before turning around, grabbing the money, and leaving. 

In all, he left with about NZ$50k, which is equivalent to about USD $29,430. 

Arrested Quickly

Stevens, who was well-known to law enforcement, was quickly arrested. His identity wasn’t concealed on security footage, so police could identify him quickly. 

At first, a judge ruled that Stevens was mentally unfit to enter a plea to the charges, which ended up being aggravated robbery with a weapon. He was then placed in custody and sent to Mason Clinic for psychiatric help. 

His condition improved over the last year, and in November, he entered a plea of guilty to nonaggregated robbery. 

Manukau District Court Judge Clare Bennett sentenced Stevens to two years and three months in jail with credit for time served. 

It’s clear that you have suffered mental health issues for a very long period of time. That is not your fault. It is an illness,” said Bennett.

SkyCity Problems

As a casino, SkyCity has had some issues of its own. In September, it shut down for five days due to regulatory violations. They were determined to have failed to adequately monitor guests for problem gambling by the Department of Internal Affairs in New Zealand. 

This stemmed from a complaint that a guest was able to wager for hours 23 times from 2017 to 2021. 

“DIA’s investigation identified 23 incidents where the customer was able to gamble continuously at the casino without detection by SkyCity’s technological system for identifying continuous play and without appropriate staff oversight or interaction,” the government agency said.