The incident left the victim, who was trying to retrieve his laptop, with a lengthy list of injuries, including gashes on his chest and the back of his neck.

Offender Jay Ruwhiu received his punishment on Thursday, when he was sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court to four years in jail for the aggravated robbery and previous crimes of burglary and theft.

Acting Justice Richard Refshauge set a non-parole period of one year.

The judge said Ruwhiu, 48, had admitted breaking a Mercedes Sprinter camper van window on Mort Street as the vehicle's owner slept inside last August.

The owner woke on the morning in question to a loud bang, and saw Ruwhiu reaching through the broken window to take his laptop.

He pursued Ruwhiu down the street and grabbed him, prompting the 48-year-old to swing a chisel at the man as the pair grappled.

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"[Ruwhiu] continued to strike at [the victim] with the chisel, making contact with several parts of his body," court documents state.

Ruwhiu threw the stolen laptop away during the struggle, causing it to smash.

The victim, meanwhile, screamed for help.

A resident of a nearby apartment building came to his aid, phoned police and managed to disarm Ruwhiu.

Police arrived and arrested Ruwhiu, who was on bail at the time after breaking into a Civic restaurant and stealing $750 from the till in January last year.

The owner of that business, Token Arcade & Kitchen, wrote a victim impact statement outlining how the burglary had cost him more than just the stolen cash, with money also forked out to bolster security and time spent assisting police.

He added that the incident had resulted in "the loss of our innocence", on the back of COVID-19 lockdowns that had "already threatened our existence".

In sentencing, Acting Justice Refshauge said Ruwhiu's criminal history was unusual in that it only dated back to 2020 despite the offender's age.

The judge said Ruwhiu, who came to Australia from a "rugged, rural" part of New Zealand 10 years ago, seemed to have turned to crime after descending into poverty and homelessness when his work dried up because of the pandemic.

He said Ruwhiu's latest offences had been committed in order for the 48-year-old to obtain money for illicit drugs, which the man apparently continued to crave.

Ruwhiu asked that his jail sentence be suspended in favour of a community-based drug and alcohol treatment order, but Acting Justice Refshauge declined to make one.

The judge decided only full-time imprisonment was appropriate, noting Ruwhiu had previously received numerous good behaviour orders and breached them all.

Having already served just shy of four months on remand for his latest offences, Ruwhiu will become eligible for parole in March 2023.

He will almost certainly be deported to New Zealand upon his release from jail.

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