A woman who committed two kidnappings in one day while New Zealand was in level 4 lockdown, telling one victim 'just drive if you want to live”, has been sentenced to home detention.

The nine months' home detention is to be served at a rehabilitation facility.

Jasmine Blake, 36, was sentenced at Rotorua District Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to two charges of kidnapping and one charge of robbery back in August 2020.

Judge Tony Snell said the cultural report into Blake was 'one of the worst I've seen in a long time”.

Snell said he would not reveal details in open court, but that 'she's been preyed upon and I can't escape the conclusion there is a clear nexus to her offending, drug use, just about everything else she's done”.

He also said she remembered very little about the offending as 'you were on a lot of drugs at the time”.

Snell conceded the sentence 'could be described as lenient” but that he wanted her 'to get the help you need and get away from the drugs”.

All charges stem from a series of offences committed by Blake on April 7 last year, starting at 6.28pm at the Countdown supermarket in Cambridge.

That is where the first victim was motoring along until Blake walked in front of his vehicle, causing him to stop.

According to the police summary of facts, she then entered the vehicle and told the man 'just f...... drive, just drive”.

'I will stab you if you don't drive,” she said. 'Just drive if you want to live.”

The summary said the man felt scared for his safety, especially when Blake was 'muttering words to herself”.

He carried on driving until Lake St, when he noticed Blake had become distracted so stopped the vehicle and escaped with his keys.

Blake then left the vehicle, walked down an alleyway off Lake St and encountered her second victim, getting into his vehicle as he prepared to drive home from work.

When he told Blake she was in the wrong car, she replied 'it is not a nice day to die” and demanded he drive her to the highway.

She also told him she possessed a gun and a knife. The victim could see the knife partly concealed up her sleeve.

'She became more aggressive and irritated and instructed him to continue driving to Rotorua.”

The summary also notes they encountered a police checkpoint while driving into Rotorua, which Blake instructed the man to avoid by performing a U-turn, before seeing a second checkpoint.

Then Blake told him to take a side road, and they made their way into the central city where the man was directed towards a bank cash machine.

He withdrew $350 for Blake, who demanded $500.

His card then declined a further withdrawal, so he used another account to draw out a further $50 for Blake.

She then asked him to drive her to a bus stop where she got out, taking his phone and money.

The man then returned to the police checkpoint to report what had happened.

-Stuff/Benn Bathgate