Remuera carjack case: Shaquille Pook pleads guilty to aggravated robbery of Auckland doctor

A man who followed a doctor from a petrol station to a car park near a Remuera medical centre before demanding his wallet and his $40,000 Audi at gunpoint has pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery.

Goodwood Heights resident Shaquille Pook, 28, appeared in the Auckland District Court today, sporting facial tattoos so extensive only his ears were unadorned. He was set to stand trial this week had the admission of guilt not been entered.

Pook is expected to return to court in December for sentencing. Aggravated robbery carries a maximum possible sentence of 14 years’ imprisonment.

Authorities allege Pook was at a BP petrol station on Green Lane East, just metres away from Mercy Ascot Hospital in one of Auckland’s most expensive neighbourhoods, when he saw the Audi pull into the forecourt around 1.30 one afternoon in August last year. Unbeknownst to the driver of the Audi, he was followed by Pook as he left the station to park nearby.

“Hey bro,” Pook is alleged to have said as the victim got out of his car in the carpark.

He pulled out what appeared to be a black handgun, although police would later identify it as a replica gun.

Pook then ordered the victim to hand over his keys and his wallet, instructing him to pull out his driver’s licence so the defendant could take a look, authorities alleged.

“I know who you are,” he said, pointing to the picture on the licence. “If you go to the cops, I know where you live. I’ll come for you.”

He also demanded the man’s pin number for his bank card, but the doctor gave him a fake number.

Pook was arrested later that day, after the stolen vehicle was spotted in Grey Lynn.

“Eagle [the police helicopter] monitored the car, which was being driven at high speed until it stopped in Bannerman Rd, Western Springs,” police said at the time.

A colleague of the doctor contacted the Herald last year to report the incident, incensed that the public hadn’t been yet made aware of it amid what appeared at the time to be an escalation in gun-related violence citywide. There has been no suggestion in court that Pook was connected to other recent gun-related incidents.

“He’s a mess,” the colleague said of the victim last year. “He was terribly traumatised.”

She said she didn’t want to be identified but wanted the public to be aware such acts “can happen anywhere”.

“It’s terrifying,” she said. “This doesn’t feel like New Zealand anymore.”

Pook was also charged with driving in a dangerous manner and failing to stop or ascertain injury – the result, police said at the time, of a crash with the stolen car prior to his arrest in which another motorist suffered a moderate injury.

However, those charges were dropped today by the Crown after he pleaded guilty to the more serious aggravated robbery charge.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.