A Christchurch judge has sent an 18-year-old guy to prison for two-years-11-months and I don’t know whether the judge has done the right thing or the wrong thing.

I mean, talk about judges being all over the show when it comes to sentences.

Let me give you a bit of background. Straight up: I think the guy sounds like a real piece of work. That’s putting it politely. There are other words I’d like to use, but you get the gist.

And if it was one of my kids that he and his mates targeted then, absolutely, I’d want the full weight of the law thrown at him, as well. But I’m trying to look at it from a broader perspective, because that’s the luxury I’ve got - this guy’s crappy behaviour hasn’t affected me personally.

So what he did was he went on what is being describing as a violent rampage - stealing other kids’ bikes, threatening and assaulting them. He didn’t operate on his own - he had others involved too - but he was the one sentenced in court in Christchurch yesterday.

So here’s an example of the sort of stuff he and his associates got up to. In February last year, a guy was riding his bike - which was worth nearly $3,000 - on a cycleway in Papanui.

These guys knocked him off his bike, demanded his iPhone and earpods, punched and kicked him in the head and all over his body, and then nicked his bike.

What else did this guy get up to? Well, a month later, he walked into an intermediate school with a bike wheel. He went to the bike stand, removed a wheel from a bike which was chained to the stand, stuck his wheel on it and took off with it.

He also stole stuff from a supermarket and went for a ride in a stolen car. At the more extreme end of things, he and his mates also went into jewellery shops in a couple of malls in Christchurch, asked to try-on watches and took off with a couple of them.

So, all up, he was done on charges of theft, unlawfully getting into a motor vehicle, aggravated robbery, intimidation, nicking a bike etc.

And, now that I’ve gone through all the stuff he got up to, I think the judge had no option but to send him to prison.

Forget about the broader perspective, this guy has got exactly what he deserves.

Because he was not a first-time offender. He’d been through the Youth Court multiple times and his lawyer - as you would expect - told the court about his challenging background.

But good on the judge - Judge Campbell Savage is his name - for turning around to this guy in court yesterday and telling him that ‘yes, you haven’t had a great start to life, but you’re running out of time to claim that I should be lenient on you because of your age’. That’s me paraphrasing what the judge said.

Here’s a direct quote: “I acknowledge you didn’t have an easy start to life but that’s not a card you can keep playing.” How about that? A judge telling a crim that the “tough upbringing” line doesn’t wash anymore. Savage by name…slightly savage by nature?

Either way, if it was one of my kids that this creep and his mates had targeted, I’d be over the moon hearing a judge talk like that. Maybe Stuart Nash’s comment about judges not reading the room when it comes to sentences might not have been in vain after all!

Because I can’t remember the last time I saw a judge get something so right when it comes to sentencing and reflecting the fact that society has just had a gutsful of people who think they have the right to intimidate people, assault people, and nick their stuff.

Just like society has had a gutsful of turkeys like these treating retailers like a foodbank and walking in and just helping themselves to whatever they want.

And yes, I know it’s possible that this guy is going to walk out of prison in just under three years - or however long he ends up inside - more of a creep than he is now. But, if turning up at Youth Court multiple times over the years hasn’t sorted him out, then prison’s the only option, isn’t it?