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Observations
Court business lost in translation
The police swear that this story is true, and that it is about a Christchurch judge who was once in session in a court down south, when the case of a German tourist was called.
The tourist could speak no English and no interpreter was available.
Was there anyone in the court who could speak German? the judge asked.
He did a bit of pleading and cajoling in the interests of getting the case heard right then, and eventually a wee chap in the back of the public seating put his hand up.
Yes, he spoke German, he said.
The judge looked relieved and motioned him forward and told him to stand next to the dock.
He would act as the unofficial interpreter to get the case moving.
Could he start by confirming the person’s name please? the judge asked.
The wee chap turned to the dock and loudly demanded: “Vot iss your name?”
Shaking his head, the judge said, “Ah well, I suppose I asked for that,” and sent the “interpreter” back to the public seats.
Another day, another domestic
After his years on the bench, Judge Stephen Erber has certainly heard it all before.
So the domestic dispute that came before him on Friday was certainly nothing new.
A 21-year-old labourer gets into an argument with his partner outside an address in Aranui on the afternoon of April 22.
He punches her on the breast.
Then he punches her on the nose.
He walks off, but returns along St Heliers Crescent, punches her again on the side of the face and pushes her to the ground.
Asked to explain himself, the young man replies, “Nothing to say, boss.”
“Are you and she still an item?” Judge Erber asks.
“Nah, she’s gone.”
“Hardly surprising,” says the judge, imposing a $650 fine.
Pair admit DIY theft
Do it yourself went way too far for two men involved in a building project.
A neighbour noticed them helping themselves to tailings for concreting from the site of a building under construction at Rolleston.
They were filling a trailer at 1am.
When the police arrived at another building site later, they found the pair hiding beneath their vehicle.
The pair admitted theft charges in the Christchurch District Court and were each fined $400 by Judge Emma Smith.
They admitted they had been stupid and the judge seemed happy to agree.
The trailerload of tailings was worth about $100.
Fines overtake weekends
Community work has been an uphill battle for a Woolston 24-year-old.
The case, which came before Judge Brian Callaghan today, is worth a mention because it shows what can happen when those continual fines begin to mount up.
For some people, the fines can eventually lead to prison, by a way of a community work sentence that doesn’t get done either.
This young man least tried to do something about it when the fines got to several thousand dollars.
He went to court and had the fines replaced with 150 hours of community work, which he was due to start in October.
He made a very bad job of that, and didn’t turn up much at all to get the work done.
Probation got sick of that performance and charged him with a breach of community work which came before the court today, and the offender pleaded guilty.
He explained to Judge Callaghan that he had run into problems because he had got a job working night shift, which he is still doing.
Probation explained that since the charge was laid, the man had got on with the sentence and had now done 90.5 hours, with 59.5 hours still to do.
Judge Callaghan noted that and didn’t impose any more community work, but fined him $400.
The man remains in a situation where he works from 11pm until 8am and after his all-night shift heads straight to the work centre for a Saturday on a community work gang.
That sounds like quite an ask, but he seems to be handling it.
He may even be regretting the behaviour that clocked up those thousands of dollars of fines in the first place.
High hopes for April
It was a prosecutorial slip of the tongue that sent a chuckle throughout the Court House.
Up in Court 10, the prosecutor asked permission to leave his cellphone on during the hearing because his wife was “two weeks away from pregnancy”.
The presiding Justice of the Peace asked if he might like to rephrase that, and suggested that the man’s wife was actually “soon to give birth”.
Ah yes, the prosecutor could see the point.
He added as an aside that it sounded as though he had some sex "booked in for April".
A guarantee of attention
There is a 25-year-old man around town with a name that is certain to catch police attention.
Unless it is a police typo — of the word Hamish perhaps — this man's first name is Hashish.
That is how the name appeared at court in two places on his charge sheet today when he appeared on a breath-alcohol charge.
Wednesday Lucudity Antonievic’s name attracted judicial attention, and her behaviour brought her a term of community work.
The 18-year-old bartender had shoplifted items from four shops at Westfield Mall on Thursday.
Christchurch District Court Judge David Saunders didn’t call it shoplifting, preferring the term “bare-faced theft”.
He asked her if it was her original name, or if she had come up with it in recent times.
She assured him it was her life-long name.
The middle name’s spelling is as it appears on the police paperwork.
“Lucid on Wednesday; dishonest on Thursday,” said Judge Saunders.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Tu Maaka said she had gone to four Westfield shops and stole cosmetics, socks, underwear, a handbag, and a t-shirt.
She was caught by mall security staff.
She told the police the money she had with her was savings to buy a house.
Defence counsel Gilbert Hay said Antonievic, whose address is given as “no fixed abode”, already had unpaid fines but she would do a sentence of community work.
Judge Saunders noted that she had previous theft convictions and had been fined or given home detention.
A fine was not appropriate for a repeat offender, he said, imposing 90 hours of community work.
A woman may get the diversion scheme for first offenders for acting in what sounds like a very reasonable fashion when she encountered a stolen car.
She ended up in court because she should have realised right at the start that the deal seemed too good to be true.
She has been charged with receiving stolen property and if she is willing to admit that, police may let her go through diversion and end up without a conviction.
But the case — dealt with in a status hearing court this week — shows how tight the law is and how careful you have to be.
The woman’s daughter brought home a car which was rather scruffy looking because it was covered in mud and dirt.
The mother agreed to buy it for the daughter for $600.
In the day or so after the deal was done, the woman came to realise that underneath the grime it wasn’t a $600 car, but could be worth a whole lot more.
She contacted the appropriate car sales firm to ask about any recent thefts from their yard and they contacted the police.
It turned out it was in fact a $45,000 car, near new, and stolen.
Police accepted that the woman had acted reasonably in the later inquiries she made, but she was still charged with receiving for the initial deal she had done.
The case was heading for a defended hearing.
Defence counsel David Ruth told the status hearing: “I don’t know whether there is going to be expert evidence that she would know the difference between a $600 car and a $45,000 car. Some people don’t.”
“She’s a grown-up,” Judge Emma Smith replied.
At the end of the Christchurch District Court status hearing, the police agreed to consider the case for diversion.
A North Islander gave Christchurch a vote of confidence by moving here “to get away from bad influences”.
But the execution of the plan went awry on the way south.
He got as far as Wellington before temptation got in the way and he apparently swiped a laptop computer at a backpackers’ hostel.
He finally appeared in the Christchurch District Court today on charges of stealing the computer, breach of community work, and breach of supervision.
He explained to Judge Michael Crosbie that he had come down from Hastings to get away from the bad influences.
“That presupposes there are no bad influences in Christchurch,” commented the judge. “I may be able to retire very shortly.”
He described the man’s past conduct as “inglorious” and remanded the unemployed 21-year-old in custody to March 1.
The young man seemed surprised to find that he will be in jail for his birthday.
A teenager who had broken into five cars and stolen items from them in Kaiapoi, supplied his mother’s address as a suitable bail address — but there was a problem.
He had also pleaded guilty to taking a bicycle and breaches of prison release conditions, and breach of bail.
All of that looks a bit awkward when you are wanting released on bail again.
The problem was that his mum turned up at court this morning and police said she was drunk.
When the youth appeared in the court in the afternoon, the judge had been made aware of the woman’s state and denied bail for her son until the address could be checked as appropriate.
The mother, who was at the back of the court, yelled “Bugger you!” to the judge as she stormed out the door followed by police officers.
Her son was taken away in custody.
A Court House staffer has become a victim of crime as he tried to stop someone getting away in his treasured sports car.
The man is a forensic psychiatric nurse who regularly attends the courts and checks the health of the clientelle who may need assistance.
The nurses are sometimes called on to provide information or opinions about remands in court.
He left the Court House one day this week in time to spot his beautifully restored Toyota MR2 sports car being driven off along Durham Street from where he had parked it outside the building.
He bravely put himself in the way by standing in front of the car at the Armagh Street lights.
It took off anyway, pitching him over the bonnet and onto the road where he bruised an elbow.
The incident was apparently captured on the traffic cam that covers the intersection.
It started out well. An understanding judge, a fresh start and no jail time.
It ended soon after in more usual fashion: shouting and swearing in the Court House corridors and ordered out of the building by security staff.
Chelsea Fairless was the young “frequent flyer” referred to in a Court News report a week ago, where the judge noted she had 12 pages of criminal history at the age of 22.
She had more than 100 convictions for disorder or minor violence including resisting the police over the last three years.
She could not be named at that stage because of the discussion of her criminal history, but she pleaded guilty yesterday.
The charges were more of the same: two of being found unlawfully in a building, one of obstructing the police, possession of cannabis, and possession of drug utensils.
Defence counsel Craig Fletcher said Fairless had had a lot of time and effort put into her and was complying with probation’s directions as much as possible.
Unfortunately, she tended to mix illicit drugs with her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder medication, and that led to episodes.
She was coming into the city for counselling for depression, arranged through probation.
It was not possible to get her into a residential rehabilitation programme because she was taking the prescription medication, Ritalin.
Christchurch District Court Judge Jane Farish noted that Fairless did seem to do well when subject to supervision. “For someone who keeps coming back before the court so often, that surprises me.”
She imposed 40 hours of community work on top of the 75-hour sentence that Fairless got last year.
She ordered six months of supervision, with a direction to undertake treatment or counselling as recommended.
And she suggested that probation arrange for her counselling out in the suburbs instead of bringing her into the city centre where she seems to be getting in trouble.
A Spreydon man’s long history of offending while on bail is bad news for his continued tenancy at a Christchurch City Council flat, and for his cat.
He’s been refused bail and he says he has no-one to call about his unattended moggy.
Hopefully some helpful agency will step in while he waits almost a month for another bail application that may let him out with electronic monitoring.
His list of previous convictions is enormous, and even the police’s list of offences committed while on bail runs to 10 pages of computer print-out.
Police prosecutor Anselm Williams said the bail offending list stretched back as far as 1987.
The name of the 42-year-old unemployed man is not suppressed but it cannot be published here because of the reporting of his criminal record before trial or conviction.
The discussion took place during a Christchurch District Court session before Judge Raoul Neave today.
On December 7, the man appeared on six charges of shoplifting and one theft of a bicycle and was remanded on bail for sentencing in February.
Eight days later, he has been charged with the theft of computer equipment worth $134 from a games shop.
He was then charged with possession of instruments for burglary December 18. He told police he always carried bolt cutters and he had the pair of pliers to fix the gears on his bicycle.
“Someone with a lengthy history of burglary wandering round with bolt cutters doesn’t inspire me with confidence,” said Judge Neave.
Then, on January 9, he is accused of the theft of more than $1000 worth of medical supplies from the Christchurch Hospital and being found in an enclosed yard.
The burglary happened when he had been at the hospital as a result of a bereavement. “It shows that when he is under stress he’s likely to resort to crime,” said Judge Neave. He was concerned that the stress of facing sentencing could trigger further offending.
Defence counsel Trudi Aickin said the man did not want to lose his council flat in Spreydon, if he was remanded in custody. The loss meant he would not have an address where a community-based sentence could be considered.
He had been living there for three months. He was also worried about his cat — there was no-one he could call to take care of it.
She wanted him bailed to his home address, but subject to a 23-hour-a-day curfew which would allow him out for just enough time to get his daily methadone dose at a pharmacy in Sydenham and buy the food he needed.
“Unfortunately he has an enormous criminal history. I stopped counting the burglary convictions at the start of this century and I had got to 13 or 14,” said the judge.
The man was remanded in custody but Judge Neave did not rule out an application for electronically monitored bail, which will be heard on February 10.
A Prebbleton man facing sentence in two weeks for a breach of a protection order has just done the same thing — five more times.
Sol Wade, 24, today pleaded guilty to breaches of the same protection order by repeatedly telephoning the woman who has taken out the order against him, and by going to her address.
Defence counsel Craig Fletcher said Wade had been on bail, but given the new charges he was not asking for it again.
Christchurch District Court Judge Raoul Neave remanded Wade in custody for his previously arranged sentencing before Judge Jane Farish on December 17 and asked Community Probation to build all the extra charges into the presentence report they are already working on.
Jason Peter Rochford is facing jail time, and some of it may be in lieu of the jaw-dropping amount of fines he has stacked up.
When he pleaded guilty to charges of theft, and eight of dishonestly using documents at the Christchurch District Court today, Judge Stephen Coyle noted that he owed the fines system $39,958.
The judge said $17,248 of that was unpaid reparations — the amount he owes to his victims for damage and loss.
He has already attended part of a drug rehabilitation course at Odyssey House, and is now in custody for sentencing on January 19.
The judge has called for a pre-sentence report, but no report aimed at home or community detention.
Defence counsel Serina Bailey acknowledged that with a jail term seemingly inevitable, it would be quite a while before Rochford would be making any fines payments.
The sentencing judge will consider that in January.
A 19-year-old was marched off to the cells swearing loudly and protesting his innocence about repeated bail breaches.
There have been three breaches in the last month and the police and the Christchurch District Court judges have finally run out of patience.
Today the remand was in custody in spite of his protests. He is next due to appear at trial on December 17 for an assault on a woman.
Judge Colin Doherty was told that the youth had been found not living at the address required on his bail bond on November 5, and then drinking alcohol in breach of his bail conditions on November 13.
His latest breach was receiving a visit from the woman complainant in the assault case — something else that’s listed as forbidden on his bail bond.
“She keeps showing up at my house,” the youth protested from the dock as Judge Doherty decided that he was not confident that the teenager should be released on bail yet again.
The custody remand and the swearing from the dock followed.
A man who said he had an accident when he was driving along and reacted badly when he found a spider crawling on his leg, has been discharged without conviction in the Christchurch District Court. He had faced a charge of careless driving causing injury.
Three weeks after his release from jail, Alan James Malloch is struggling with life on the outside.
He has been finding it hard to get a social welfare benefit arranged, and accommodation has so far proved impossible for the unemployed 45-year-old.
He was arrested on the day of his release and charged with stealing a bicycle from a woman who left it in Woodham Park while she visited the public toilets there.
He was apparently going to sell it to get money for alcohol.
He got 90 hours of community work for that.
Then he came back to court today, charged with breaching the inner city liquor ban on November 20 when he was caught in Manchester Street with a bottle of gin.
And he was again arrested last night, when he went into an unoccupied block of Housing New Zealand flats which had been left open, in Riccarton Road.
Security staff found him asleep in the lounge.
He hadn’t taken anything, hadn’t done any damage. He just wanted a place to sleep.
That led to a night in the cells and an appearance today before Judge Tony Couch.
But the incident has led to the help that’s needed for a man whose criminal record now runs to 13 pages.
His probation officer has been arranging a sickness benefit, and has made an approach to Housing New Zealand for him to get accommodation as soon as possible.
Judge Couch noted that Malloch’s life was already being overseen by probation because of his prison release conditions. He left it at that.
He gave him a suspended sentence for being in the flat, and a conviction and discharge for breaching the liquor ban.
And Malloch headed out of the Court House to continue his daily struggle.
After 20 years experience at the Christchurch courts, a court crier and jury attendant working on the trial of a policeman charged with bribery and sex offences has encountered his first smoke-free jury.
Juries often take breaks during deliberations so that the smokers can get outside to have a puff.
In this trial, when the jury knocks on the door and says it feels like some fresh air, it will mean just that.
A 17-year-old faces a $1000 bill for a bit of idle tagging at the Bus Exchange.
Cody Daymond was waiting for a bus at the Exchange when he took out a cigarette lighter and burned the word “taxi” onto a window.
He admitted the damage at an appearance in the Christchurch District Court, when defence counsel Paul Johnson acknowledged Daymond’s offence had been a serious error of judgment.
Daymond is applying to go on the independent youth benefit and already has $200 in unpaid fines.
He is also doing a community work sentence, having completed 15.5 hours of a 100-hour term.
Judge Brian Callaghan gave him an additional 100 hours to do, and ordered him to pay the $1000 bill for the damage.
According to Community Probation, Alan James Malloch didn’t even last the day when he was released from prison on Monday November 2.
Christchurch District Court Judge Brian Callaghan noted that the 45-year-old’s print-out of convictions has now reached 13 pages.
Malloch, an unemployed resident of an inner city address, was in Woodham Park about midday on Monday where he stole a woman’s bicycle while she was making a stop at the public toilets.
He told police he took the bicycle because he was thirsty and looking for an opportunity.
He pleaded guilty to the theft charge, and probation pointed out that he had only been released from prison on Monday.
Defence counsel said Malloch was rather keen to do community work — considering the likely alternative — and Judge Callaghan gave him a term of 90 hours.
Letterboxes target of drunken pair
Two teens who got drunk and victimised the letterboxes of Glenrowan Avenue, Avondale, have been dealt with at court.
One got diversion — the scheme that allows first offenders to go through the system without a conviction — as long as he paid $100 for the damage he did.
But the other, 18-year-old Roger Matafeo, could not get diversion because he could not come up with the required $125.
Defence counsel Gilly ferguson said Matafeo had been unable to get the money because of the large amount of his earnings he was sending to extended family in Samoa.
So instead of diversion, he pleaded guilty to charges of disorderly behaviour and intentional damage, and accepted that he would get convictions.
The police said he and his friend walked down the road yelling and shouting at 2.25am on June 7, kicking cars and letterboxes. They damaged five letterboxes before they were stopped.
Matafeo was unco-operative and drunk and denied damaging anything.
Christchurch District Court Judge John Bisphan fined him $150 and $130 court costs on each charge and ordered him to pay $125 for the damage he did.
He is already paying off fines of $400 at $30 a week and that arrangement will continue.
Woman facing deportation rethinks assault complaint
An emigrant couple’s domestic troubles nearly got them sent back to Pakistan.
The man had admitted a charge of assaulting his wife.
But when it came time to sentence him, the woman stood in the Christchurch District Court to say that the police account of the incident had been exaggerated.
The exaggeration, it seems, had come from her.
The husband was worried that a conviction could delay the granting of a liquor manager’s licence, and could result in the loss of his graduate job search visa.
If that happened, the couple would deported to Pakistan, Judge John Bisphan was told.
The husband wanted a discharge without conviction and the wife had handed in a sworn statement supporting his request.
But police Sergeant Paul Brocas told the court the woman had originally said the assault in January was not the first time there had been family violence and it was not the worst beating she had received.
It was just the first time she had called the police.
Judge Bisphan said the woman was very concerned that if her husband was convicted she would find herself being deported to Pakistan along with him.
She also went further in the statement and said that what she told police at the time was not necessarily true.
He said if it only involved the man he would not allow the discharge without conviction, but he would grant it because of the difficulties the woman would face.
He ordered the man to pay $500 towards the cost of the prosecution.
Police have taken a new line with a tagger and slapped an extra charge on him.
They are alleging that the Linwood 22-year-old defaced a building with spray paint on August 13 and they have charged him with that.
But they have also charged him with having possession of the can of spray paint without reasonable excuse and in circumstances where they could infer he intended to commit an offence.
The unemployed man was given a registrar’s remand on August 18 and is due back in court on September 8.
Two Christchurch lawyers — men of rather different appearance — were muddled by those typing up the record of a Christchurch trial while listening in to the sound feed from some other part of the building, or the country.
Defence counsel Colin Eason lists his corrections to the typed record of the trial: “There is a regrettable correction on page 24 where I am being referred to as Mr Eaton.”
Judge Raoul Neave: “Unless you have gained four or five inches and wider stripes on your suit.”
Mr Eason: “And a younger outlook.”
Slow learner caught again
Judge John Bisphan sees Rodger William Hollidge as a slow learner.
The Linwood 18-year-old has already been to prison this year for interfering or stealing from cars.
On June 25, he and another youth used a screwdriver to break into a Honda Civic parked in Cuffs Road, and rummaged through it looking for stuff to steal.
They didn’t find anything, but were found by the police nearby, still with the screwdriver.
Instead of sending him straight back to jail, Judge Bisphan told him he was a slow learner and ordered him to do 100 hours of community work.
An Akaroa man may end up serving home detention instead of paying his massive fines total.
He clocked up fines totalling $21,208.
Finding he could not pay them, he came to court in March and did a deal to transfer them into community work.
He was going to do 325 hours instead of the fines. That’s a pay-rate of $62.50 an hour.
To his credit, he did 169 hours, travelling weekly from Akaroa to the work centre in Sydenham.
But Community Probation says he stopped reporting on May 23.
They charged him with failing to do the hours and he was in court today, explaining that since June he had not been able to afford to travel from Akaroa.
Now the deal normally is that you do all the required hours, or you get none of the discount.
How this case will be handled is not certain with 156 hours outstanding.
Judge John Bisphan remanded the man on bail for a pre-sentence report and sentencing on September 14.
He asked for the extra report that will allow the judge to consider home detention and community detention.
Echoes of Bain
The pre-trial call-over session proves too big for the court room.
When one of the big jury courts comes free for the afternoon, the pre-trial session is quickly switched into there.
Even so, the court is packed and some of the most experienced trial lawyers end up sitting in the jury seats.
When one of them gets to his feet, the judge expresses his discomfort at seeing him in the jury box.
“I can just imagine the type of questions that would be coming from the jury room,” he says.
Hours later, after 5pm with the session still running, the same lawyer stands for another of his cases.
The judge comments: “Aah, juror number 8.”
Defence counsel: “At this time of the day, I probably feel a bit like those Bain jurors.”
Judge: “There will be no hugging.”
A young offender pleads guilty to cannabis charges.
The judge takes a look at the police’s written summary of the case.
He tells the court: “There is nothing remarkable except that when the police were at the house, he threw plastic bags out of the bedroom window, into the arms of the detective standing outside.”
Perhaps the detective’s plain clothes outfit was particularly convincing.
It goes without saying that the whole system of fines only works if people pay them.
Lance Puwaero Barton, a 40-year-old unemployed man from Woolston, is paying his fines.
He pays them at $15 a week.
It’s evidently not possible for him to pay more.
But it may be that he had enough spare cash to get very drunk one night last night and get aggressive towards people in his neighbourhood.
He kicked fences and wandered about in the traffic.
He brought his guitar along to the Christchurch District Court today to plead guilty to a charge of disorderly behaviour.
The only penalty that can be imposed for disorderly behaviour is a fine, so Judge Stephen Erber added just $100 to the total of unpaid fines.
He confirmed that Barton was paying his fines at $15 a week.
He’s got a little way to go to get on top of his unpaid fines.
The total is $29,000 and he will be aged 77 in 37 years’ time when he’s fine-free.
In another case, Judge Michael Crosbie took a realistic and compassionate approach with a Wainoni man who was being resentenced because he was too ill to finish his sentence of community work.
He got 180 hours a year ago for breaches of home detention, community work, and conspiring to deal in drugs.
The man had done 78hrs 30min of the sentence, but he had what probation termed a life-threatening illness and they wanted the sentence cancelled.
Judge Crosbie decided on community detention instead, and noted that the man was paying $80 a week off his unpaid fines totalling $27,600
Judge Crosbie cut $17,600 from the total of fines and enforcement fees in return for an extra month of community detention.
That made three months when the man will be confined at home from 7pm to 7am each night.
But he seemed to appreciate the break.
When the judge warned him that the court was running out of options if he breached his sentence, he replied: “You won’t see me here again, Your Honour.”
A mother who didn’t show up as a witness at the trial of her ex-partner – charged with assaulting her – has ended up in the cells herself.
The odd turn of events played out at the Christchurch District Court today after the police had executed an arrest warrant and picked the woman up.
The warrant was issued by a judge in the fixture court where trials are heard by a judge-alone.
Defence counsel Denise Johnston said the woman was unwell on the day of the trial and was suffering from stress and anxiety.
She had not laid the complaint that had led to her ex-partner being arrested, but she had been the victim of the alleged assault.
Since the trial was rescheduled she had been arrested, had spent the night in the cells, and had to make alternative arrangements for the care of her 15-year-old daughter.
The Phillipstown woman had now made arrangements for the police to pick her up on the day of the hearing, which was set for August 7.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Paul Brocas said it was unusual for the police to take action against a prosecution witness.
He spoke of imposing a bail condition for the woman to report to the police station on the day before the hearing.
But Mrs Johnston pointed out there was no charge and there could be no bail.
Judge Michael Crosbie gave the police the chance to have the case delayed so they could lay a charge rather than just hold the woman on a warrant.
But Sergeant Brocas said the police did not want to charge a potential prosecution witness.
Judge Crosbie released the woman, but told her: “The next time you decide you are not going to come to court, having been summonsed, you can be charged. It is a criminal offence and you can be held in custody until the hearing.”
The shine must surely be going off William Stewart in spite of his efforts to turn himself into a folk figure.
Some locals in the Mount Somers and Staveley area of Mid-Canterbury knew about his camp site for weeks and omitted to tell the police.
The burglar and P-user, who styles himself Billy the Hunted One, had allegedly been ranging across the countryside from his camp site, committing further crimes.
But there was an example in the Christchurch District Court today about how his weeks on the run are putting the squeeze on the locals.
One man found himself arrested for possession of cannabis that was found when police searched his property in detail looking for Stewart.
The property owner was fined $400 by Judge Jacqui Moran.
That’s a debt the folk figure is unlikely to repay.
The Hunted One now has another set of wheels after a 3am visit to a farm near Staveley on Monday.
The vehicle is a 2003 four-wheel-drive Nissan Navara flat deck with sides, coloured green, registration number OTIRA. The offender used the vehicle keys to start it.
Police believe that William Stewart is the offender for the taking of this vehicle as the Mitsubishi four-wheel-drive he had previously stolen from the Staveley area in the past two weeks was located in a paddock opposite the address where the utility was stolen from.
The police did not say why he changed vehicles – whether one had got low on petrol, or broken down, or perhaps he needed flat deck to move something.
People who might try to rescue their cars from being confiscated by using false declarations about sales have been sent a serious warning by Christchurch District Court Judge Stephen Erber.
He was confronted with the paperwork from a woman charged with driving while disqualified.
She had driven to help a friend with his tax return, she said, and she qualified for the loss of her car.
The car had also been damaged in a shopping centre carpark prang and wasn’t worth very much.
She had sold it to her daughter for $100, she said.
The daughter didn’t live in the same house, but did live in the same suburb, the judge was told.
“This seems a very convenient sale,” said the judge, examining the declaration he had been handed.
He fined the woman $500 and disqualified her for a further six months for the disqualified driving.
He also said: “I will accept the declaration. If it is later found you were driving this vehicle, it is likely to follow that your declaration is false, and very serious consequences will arise for you.”
A judge has opted for more safety for Christchurch’s road users, and less freedom for Benjamin Kennedy to go out drinking.
Kennedy has been repeatedly caught drink-driving.
The levels are high and they have now led to another jail term.
Judge Colin Doherty made the point that Kennedy did not seem to have learned from his previous term that involved some home detention, nor from a term of community detention.
So now he has gone to jail for 13 months with special conditions that will apply for six months after his release.
He’s been disqualified from driving indefinitely. He cannot get his licence back until the Director of Land Transport decides.
The director will need proof that alcohol is no longer an issue for Kennedy before he allows it.
Kennedy was caught driving on October 24 with 917mcg of alcohol to a litre of breath – more than twice the 400mcg legal limit.
His bad driving bought him to the police’s attention.
It was his sixth conviction for drink-driving, and the third time in three years when he had more than twice the limit.
Defence counsel Bridget Ayrey said Kennedy had not displayed a “cavalier” attitude. He had not gone to the party with the vehicle, but had only decided to drive after he had been drinking.
He is now in a relationship with a family that needs his support. He says he is motivated to address his overuse of alcohol and poor decision-making.
But Judge Doherty said Kennedy was disposed to drink-driving, putting himself and others at risk.
He said home detention was inappropriate because Kennedy had not been deterred by other similar sentences.
“You continue to drive after drinking, at very high levels, and placing others at risk. I have got other road users to think of,” said the judge.
Kennedy had admitted the charges of drink-driving and driving while disqualified.
A man is defending a charge of refusing a blood specimen when he was stopped by police – he says he didn’t refuse. He just said nothing at all.
The man is getting legal advice in Christchurch and seeking bail to live at a Cranford Street address.
The Christchurch District Court is considering that.
He was stopped by the police in Blenheim.
Under New Zealand law, someone who refuses to allow a blood test to be taken is treated as though they are guilty of drink-driving.
But duty solicitor David Stringer says the man didn’t refuse the specimen.
“He simply exercised his right to silence,” he told Judge Jane McMeeken.
“That was interpreted by the police as a refusal, but had the doctor been called he would have provided the sample to the doctor.”
The man appeared in the Blenheim court and was remanded in custody to Christchurch so that the proposed bail address could be checked.
He will appear in court again once he has had legal advice from his lawyer in Christchurch.
Bianca Feeney had Judge Jane McMeeken quite mystified.
“What do you do all day?” the judge asked.
“Nothing,” came the reply from the dock.
“You get up in the morning and then you do…nothing?”
Apparently.
Feeney pleaded guilty to an assault charge for a street fight that caused minor injuries to another woman.
According to the police summary of facts, hair-pulling and handbags were involved.
She was also meant to be doing community work in Blenheim, but she has been living in Christchurch since before Christmas.
She’s done nothing about transferring the work south.
“Why not?” asked the judge. “Been too busy?”
Feeney is now on bail awaiting sentence on June 16 because Judge McMeeken decided a pre-sentence report was needed.
She asked Feeney about smoking dope and drinking and was told she didn’t do either.
“I’m calling for a report because there’s clearly something going on for this young woman that’s not particularly healthy,” she told the probation officer in court.
The exchange began when defence counsel Margaret Sewell told the court that Feeney could not be fined because at age 23, she had no income at all. She had no job and was not on a benefit.
“Explain to me why you are doing nothing,” said Judge McMeeken.
“I have been looking for work but it’s quite hard to find a job.”
The judge pointed out that doing her community work would have been doing something.
Judge: “How do you live, if you have got no money?”
Feeney: “Parents.”
Further inquiries showed she had got the community work sentence in Blenheim because she had not been able to pay the fines she had clocked up.
By the time she is dealt with in June she will face a charge of breaching the community work sentence, as well as the street assault.
Judge McMeeken advised her to make contact with the Probation Service in the meantime.
“Otherwise you are walking yourself to jail,” she said.
Times are undoubtedly getting tougher for youths on bail on charges of violence.
One of them made a bid for bail in the Christchurch District Court today, having spent two weeks in custody on remand.
The 18-year-old had ended up in custody for repeated bail breaches while on remand on charges of assault, assault with intent to rob, and two of demanding with intent to steal.
After repeatedly failing meet his bail obligations — including a depositions hearing being cancelled when he didn’t turn up for one session — he received final warnings from judges on February 13 and February 28.
There are three charges of breaching bail against him in the system.
Defence counsel Bridget Ayrey said he wanted released to begin at a course with the New Zealand Institute of Sport.
He had already enrolled and had made arrangements to draw student loan money for his studies.
He offered no explanation for not turning up, apart from confusion about dates.
Police said he had been trying to evade them, and were concerned he would continue to offend while on bail.
Judge Gary MacAskill said he believed he would not be justified in taking the risk that the teenager would turn up at court if he were released on bail again.
He did reserve leave for the youth to apply later for electronically monitored bail.
But in the meantime, the youth has been returned to the custody for an appearance at a pre-depositions conference sitting on April 9.
His appearance was a serious bid for release after what would have been his final, final, final warning.
A father of three cited domestic pressures for the drinking that got him into trouble, and into court.
The 43-year-old man is an ACC beneficiary with a weekly income of $450, of which $300 goes on rent.
He also has more than $5000 in unpaid fines.
Christchurch District Court Judge Gary MacAskill was told that at 3.30pm on March 26 he went into a community centre in Seaview Road, lay on the floor and asked for help for his drinking problem.
He was abusive to the staff when they gave him a contact number for an alcohol help line, and refused to leave the centre.
When staff showed him off the premises, he kicked in a door.
He admitted charges of disorderly behaviour and intentional damage, and also a breach of the inner city liquor ban on an earlier date.
Defence counsel Phillip Watts said the man had little recollection of the incident at the community centre because of his intoxication.
“He has three children in his care and one of them was giving him a lot of angst,” said Mr Watts. He was drinking to relieve these domestic pressures. I have advised him that it was an inappropriate way of dealing with it.”
Judge MacAskill said a fine was not appropriate because of the already large amount of unpaid fines, and sentenced the man to 100 hours of community work, as well as ordering him to pay $306 for the damage to the door.
“By looking at your record it seems you have had a problem with booze for a very long time,” said the judge.
It was a serious burglary: $19,000 worth of household items including a lot of jewellery of sentimental value.
Solving it didn’t prove too much of a problem.
A few days after the break-in, one of the perpetrators – a drug-addicted 19-year-old woman from Aranui – was caught on a bank’s video system cashing one of the cheques that had been stolen.
Not only did the bank have the photos of the $630 cheque being cashed, but the woman had used her own identification.
She ended up in the Christchurch District Court today to plead to the burglary charge.
Looks like she’ll get home detention, according to Judge David Saunders.
Pending sentencing in two months’ time, she’s on bail at home under a curfew from 9pm to 7am.
The judge says that should get her used to the idea of home detention.
And if she breaks it, she can expect the court to decide that she can’t be trusted and send her to prison.
He also urged her to help the police to recover the jewellery that had been taken, while she’s on remand.
Prison apparently has its charms
I’ve been to the prison – visiting someone, accompanying student journalists on a tour, even playing in a chess tournament.
It hasn’t struck me as Club Med.
But then, I get so bored so quickly that I’d make a hopeless inmate.
It was a bit of a shock today, to learn that the place has actual attractions for some people.
A young fellow who had been held in custody was called from the cells for a pre-depositions conference at the Christchurch District Court.
He was on charges of burglary, assault with intent to injure, and theft.
He had been heading for jury trial but had changed his mind and said he preferred a trial before a judge-alone.
Arrangements were made.
Judge John Strettell remanded him in custody, by consent, to a status hearing on April 6.
The young fellow wondered if a later date could be set, please.
Why is that? the judge wanted to know.
The prisoner explained: “Because I’m happy where I am.”
Judge Strettell declined that invitation.
The young man will be trucked in from Club Med for his court appearance on April 6.
