NEWS

Police solved only five of the 53 aggravated robberies of South Auckland shops in the six months before liquor store owner Navtej Singh was fatally shot in a hold-up.

The record was revealed in Parliament, where National MP and former policeman Chester Borrows blamed it on a lack of police staff "to do the basics, like checking registration numbers and following up on descriptions of offenders".

Mr Borrows told the Herald an operation was set up to investigate robberies of commercial premises in the Counties-Manukau police district after Mr Singh was fatally injured in his Manurewa liquor store on June 7.

He said police sources told him the operation discovered the five-from-53 record and that detectives on it had found basic clues were not followed up because of understaffing.

Mr Singh's cousin Gurwinder Singh, who was in the shop at the time of the shooting, last night said the figures showed the Government needed to give police more staff and powers to sort out crime in the area.

"It should be more strict so criminals and robbers can be caught."

The Government has introduced a bill to prevent small shops selling alcohol, but Gurwinder Singh said it should focus on laws that allowed shopkeepers to protect themselves.

Detective Inspector John Tims, Counties-Manukau crime services manager, said the aggravated robbery operation was set up not in response to Mr Singh's murder.

He said it started before that, although he could not say when.

Mr Tims said the operation had arrested 20 offenders and solved eight aggravated robberies in which knives and other weapons were used.

Another 10 offenders had been identified, and once they were arrested, another five robberies would be cleared.

Mr Tims did not dispute Mr Borrows' figures.

He would not comment on Mr Borrows' assertion that basic clues were not followed up, saying priorities were part of policing.

There was different evidence in each case "and the evidence takes you where it takes you".

Mr Borrows told Parliament other details about policing in South Auckland, including an internal email that said "senior investigators in this [Counties-Manukau] district are nearly falling over".

He asked Police Minister Annette King if she agreed the measure of the success of law and order policy was how policing in South Auckland came up to public expectation.

Ms King said the success of policing would be measured around NZ, because although there were problems in South Auckland, "a sole officer working in the backblocks of Otago is under immense pressure as well".

She told Parliament police in South Auckland had recently faced many serious issues, and Commissioner Howard Broad had assured her that detectives could be taken from any part of New Zealand to back them up.

The minister would not comment further last night on the unsolved aggravated robberies.