Just out of prison for burglary, and losing his job, a Huntly man continued burglaries, setting his sights on high-end car dealerships and causing nearly $500,000 in losses.

And Ethan Cory Douglas Pevreal-Lilley does not have to pay a cent back.

The 31-year-old targeted the Hamilton businesses, often more than once, and stole not only vehicles but clothing, a trailer, tools, and even keys.

A burglary of Turners overnight on November 5-6, 2022, not only cost the company more than $300,000 but caused an abrupt halt in trading after he stole the key to every car on the lot.

Turners Car Auctions suffered the biggest loss during Ethan Pevreal-Lilley's burglary spree in November 2022. Photo / NZME

Pevreal-Lilley jimmied a window of the office and turned off the power which disabled the CCTV and alarm system before taking the keys to all 165 vehicles that were in the yard.

He left, returned, and - using the stolen keys - drove off with a $26,000 Mercedes. He returned a third time, this time with associates, and stole two more vehicles, a Holden and a VW Polo, worth more than $45,000.

The vehicles were all found days later in Huntly. The Holden was burnt out, the VW had panel damage and the Mercedes was not damaged.

The biggest cost was the $300,000 it cost Turners to get new keys and locks and to replace the ignition for each of the cars.

His burglary spree began early on Sunday, October 30, at Fairview Motors, which was targeted multiple times.

Pevreal-Lilley walked around opening unlocked cars, and looking through them before driving off in a $10,000 Nissan Cefiro.

Returning later that night, he dragged a $12,500 trailer into the middle of the compound, then drove a $35,000 Nissan Skyline on to it and used a $12,000 Ford Courier Ute to tow it away.

Winger Subaru was hit on the afternoon of Saturday, November 5.

He stole a backpack from one unlocked vehicle before getting into the cab of a Mitsibushi truck and trying, but failing, to hot wire it.

He fled on foot and ended up at Prestige Collision where he walked into the office and stole a hoodie, keys to a Mercedes, and a jump start pack.

At Eco Insulation six days later, after failing to steal a truck he took a bag of tools from an unlocked work van.

Half an hour later he was at Strata Precision Plastics where he tried, but failed, to hot wire a Holden ute, causing $7000 in damage.

During the early hours of November 12, he was back at Winger Subaru with an associate and stole a container full of tools from a work van along with a torque wrench and plastic case used on Ferrari vehicles, valued at $2000.

The pair then struck Prestige Collision again where Pevreal-Lilley walked around with the keys he stole the previous weekend, pressing the unlock button to try to find the Mercedes.

He didn’t end up finding it because it had been moved inside a garage.

Pevreal-Lilley appeared in the Hamilton District Court for sentencing on a total of 12 charges; nine for burglary, two for possession of instruments to use in a burglary and unlawfully getting in to a motor vehicle, after accepting a sentence indication in November.

Judge Kim Saunders had already indicated she would give him 20 per cent discount for his guilty pleas and his counsel, Wayne Dollimore, pushed for further discounts for remorse, his Section 27 cultural report, and the many courses he had completed while on remand.

“He’s done everything he could on remand. I understand your sentencing options are limited but he’s keen to do all the courses he can and he has done these ... and they’re not easy to do.”

Dollimore said the offending began after Pevreal-Lilley lost his job “and had all this free time with the wrong associates”.

He was using cannabis daily, was “car mad” and, all put together, he made “poor decisions”.

As for the Turners burglary, he just happened to be walking home and noticed there wasn’t a padlock on the gate so he opened it.

He now wanted to put it all behind him and return to farm work.

Reparation was “unrealistic”, Dollimore said.

While Judge Saunders accepted Pevreal-Lilley could not pay back his victims, she could not see anything wrong with his upbringing. She noted his life started to unravel after he lost several friends to suicide or car crashes. That saw him turn to drug use.

Judge Saunders said the offending was pre-meditated and the scale of loss exceeded $485,000.

She also noted he was jailed for two years and eight months in 2021 on eight charges of burglary, receiving stolen property, and drug use.

“By all accounts, you had a good childhood. There’s nothing that would have given rise for you to have started this self-destructive path of recidivist dishonest offending.

“The point is, you’re educated, smart and you were working, and to some extent perhaps that shows why your dishonest offending was of the nature it is, which is targeting high-end car dealers.

“It’s not the run-of-the-mill burglary that usually comes before this court.”

Pevreal-Lilley, who was supported in court by his mother, was jailed for four years and five months.

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for nine years and been a journalist for 20.