Cash and drugs worth about half a million dollars were found in a Christchurch police swoop, the Crown said as a 44-year-old pleaded guilty.

Michael Heron admitted possession of methamphetamine for supply, unlawful possession of a pistol, and possession of a psychoactive substance for supply, in the Christchurch District Court.

He told police he had the pistol for his own protection, and the synthetic cannabis was for his own use.

The Crown summary of facts said on Wednesday November 2, Heron and two alleged co-offenders were in a car when stopped by police. Heron had $3935 cash on him and had just left a local motel on Riccarton Road.

The search of the motel room found a locked metal safe containing about 336g of methamphetamine with an estimated street value of $336,000. In the room, the police found 112g of synthetic cannabis worth $1200.

At Heron’s address, they found a six-shot .32 calibre pistol with four live rounds, and more cash.

He said two other men arrested knew nothing about his offending, but police allege Heron was part of a group involved in the commercial sale of methamphetamine, and the $155,000 cash found was the proceeds from the dealing.

Judge Jane Farish remanded Heron in custody for sentencing on June 14.

The other two men had pleaded not guilty at an earlier court session, and were remanded in custody for a pre-trial argument on June 13.

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The Crown alleges the date rape drug GHB may have been used on a woman by her meth dealer before he raped her in her Greymouth home.

The woman began giving her account of the alleged sex attack in early 2014 on the first day of the trial of the 31-year-old meth dealer before Judge Brian Callaghan and a jury in the Christchurch District Court today.

But the man’s defence counsel Marcus Zintl told the jury that the man said the offending never happened, and the allegations arose from the woman’s own methamphetamine addiction.

The allegation arose at a time when she had smoke P, or pure methamphetamine, and she had continued smoking it afterwards.

“The complainant has either hallucinated the incident as a result of smoking methamphetamine, or has false memory as a result of smoking methamphetamine, or she is lying,” Mr Zintl said.

The defence would call expert evidence from a forensic psychiatrist who would say that consumption of P could adversely affect and person’s perception and memory, and consumption afterwards could also affect memory. It was not unusual for people using the drug to have hallucinations.

The jury was told as the trial began that the man had admitted dealing in methamphetamine and had been been dealt with by the courts for that.

The man, who has interim name suppression, denies charges of stupefying the woman with intent to sexually violate her, and raping her, in a trial expected to last about four days.

Prosecutor Andrew McRae told the jury: “The Crown alleges he administered a drug that was likely the date rape drug GHB with the intention that it would facilitate the intended rape.”

The man had regularly supplied the woman with methamphetamine and cannabis, and they had taken drugs together but they had no relationship.

When the man went to her house on this day early in 2014, they made hot drinks and then the woman went outside for a cigarette. When she went back inside and drank her hot drink, she began feeling tired, sick, and weak.

She alleged the man then attacked her, in a struggle that broke her ranchslider door and smashed the lock. He then pinned her down, removed her pants, and raped her while she struggled and said “No”, Mr McRae said.

A consultant toxicologist would give evidence that GHB was a drug that affected the central nervous system. It was a powder which dissolved into liquids, or was in liquid form in vials or small bottles.

It would take effect in 10 to 20 minutes, causing a loss of muscle tone, loss of inhibitions, relaxation, slowed heart rate and respiration.

It had a soapy or salty taste but when put in a drink it was difficult to detect. “When administered it can incapacitate a person and make them very vulnerable,” Mr McRae said.

Its effects were the opposite of methamphetamine, which was an “upper” which caused a rush or a high. The woman was a regular P user, who knew the effects of that drug.

The woman did not make a complaint for a year, after the police heard rumours and approached her about it. She had photographed the bruising on her body that she received in the struggle with the man and had texted the photo to people who would be called to give evidence.

Mr McRae said: “The Crown says he drugged her so that he could have sex with her. What he did not take into account was that she would remember what happened.”

The trial is continuing.

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Police were refused an arrest warrant when a man allegedly shot in a gang incident on March 30 failed to appear on other charges at the Christchurch District Court today because of his injuries.

The man, William Louis Ratima, 49, was hit with a shotgun blast in an incident in Hornby, and was found wounded in the street after emergency services were called. Police said the incident was gang-related.

He has remained in hospital until last Friday when he was discharged, but defence counsel Lee Lee Heah said he was still in a lot of pain and unable to get to the Court House. He was also unable to arrange a medical certificate for the court.

She asked for a remand without his appearance, and without plea, but the police prosecutor Sergeant Paul Scott said police sought an arrest warrant anyway.

He asked for a warrant that could “lie in court” – without being executed – until Wednesday to give Ratima a chance to produce the necessary medical certificate.

Miss Heah said she had been able to confirm by searching online that a person of Ratima’s age had been shot in an incident on the day he had indicated to her.

“It would be a pretty extreme thing to make up,” said Judge Paul Kellar.

The probation officer in court and the police prosecutor then also confirmed that Ratima had been wounded.

A 32-year-old labourer, Paul Leslie Stockford, has been charged with firing a shotgun at him with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and has been remanded in custody for an appearance by video-link on April 24.

Judge Kellar said today it would be “churlish” to issue an arrest warrant for Ratima in the circumstances, when he made no appearance on two charges of driving without a licence, and unlawfully taking a car.

Rather than issuing a warrant, he remanded the case to April 26, without Ratima’s appearance, but said he must produce a medical certificate on that day.

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For the second time, Immigration New Zealand has stymied the sentencing of a marriage scam fraudster by refusing her entry into the country.

The sentencing was meant to take place in the Christchurch District Court today, but the offender was still in Australia after being refused a visitor’s visa.

Instead, the sentencing will have to go ahead with the woman, 60-year-old Li Jun Xue, appearing by video-link from Sydney.

Judge Tom Gilbert set June 23 for the sentencing, and indicated that he had in mind an emotional harm reparation payment to the victim, and a fine, since a financial penalty was the only practical sentence that could be enforced for someone outside New Zealand.

When she is sentenced, it will be a year and a day since Xue was found guilty by Judge Gilbert at a judge-alone trial on a charge of obtaining $35,000 by deception.

She had arranged a newspaper advertisement offering a woman for companionship and possible marriage.

An older Wellington man answered the advertisement and paid the $35,000 before learning that the 45-year-old woman he had been introduced to, was already married. Xue and a man described as her husband had been witnesses at her wedding in Woollongong.

The scam victim was then told that a divorce could be arranged if he paid another $10,000.

Xue lives in Australia and was allowed to return there on bail. She has repaid the $35,000 to the victim since the trial.

Xue tried to return to Christchurch in January for a scheduled sentencing, but defence counsel Alister James explained that she had bought a ticket and was then told that Immigration New Zealand had told Qantas that she would not be allowed into New Zealand because of her fraud conviction. She was unable to board the aircraft.

Now she has been declined a visitor’s visa on the grounds that she does not have the funds to support herself while in New Zealand. Mr James said that was unusual, and the visa application did not have any section on it that required those details. She had agreed to be sentenced by video-link instead.

Judge Gilbert said it would be better to sentence her by video-link rather than issue an arrest warrant which would remain in the system and be executed if she ever did return to New Zealand.

He said it was the fourth time her sentencing had been scheduled, but he accepted “that she has tried hard to return to put an end to this matter”. He said he had looked at the legislation and believed he was entitled to conduct a video-link sentencing with someone overseas.

He asked Mr James to check that a link-up could be made in Sydney for the sentencing. He said: “This has been dragging on for a fair while so I want to make sure it happens.”

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A man who endured more than a decade of childhood sexual abuse at Marylands special school has been granted home detention after admitting a drunken sexual violation.

The 55-year-old suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and has daily flashbacks of the he suffered abuse at the St John of God school.

He was a witness in the 2009 Christchurch trial of one of the Catholic brothers who was found guilty of years of offending against multiple victims. That accused was jailed.

Christchurch District Court Judge Tom Gilbert decided that home detention could be allowed in the circumstances, after Crown prosecutor Emma Henderson conceded that a sentence of imprisonment could be seen as “unduly harsh”.

He imposed the maximum 12-month term of home detention and the maximum 400-hours of community work which he hopes will allow the man to continue the mostly unpaid and voluntary gardening work he does now.

The man does not have name suppression on the current offending – the judge ruled there were no grounds for it. But he does have automatic suppression as a complainant in the St John of God sex trial.

The man had had a “wretched existence” as a child at the Marylands school, near Halswell, Judge Gilbert said. “It has left you with PTSD and I have no doubt it has very much shaped the person you are today.”

He said: “It was a place where untold misery was inflicted on people at the hands of several highly repellent individuals.”

The man had been sexually abused for over a decade. “The abuse replays in your head over and again, like a movie, up to 10 times a day.”

The man sat shaking in the dock throughout the sentencing, while rubbing his face. He has contemplated and attempted suicide, and has said he would commit suicide if jailed.

He cannot handle closed or confined spaces. Interviews with his counsellor, probation officer and lawyer have had to be conducted in rooms with the doors open, or in open spaces at the Court House.

He does have some previous convictions. Two decades ago he committed an indecent that was punished with a supervision sentence, and he was later prosecuted for “stalking” behaviour with a woman. There was no predatory sexual aspect to that later behaviour, said defence counsel Nick Rout.

The man had written a letter of apology to the sexual violation victim, and would have liked to apologise in person if a restorative justice meeting had been possible.

He said the man was “appalled with himself” and could not explain his offending. “The amount he had to drink on that night means he can’t really remember it.”

The man was held in custody on remand for a time. It meant he did not eat, because his was the victim of stand-over tactics by other prisoners who took his food away. He was eventually placed in an at-risk unit.

Judge Gilbert said the sexual violation occurred at a party in Christchurch in January 2016, where most of the 20 guests drank heavily. A woman passed out on a couch and woke at 3am to find the man had removed her pants and underwear and was sexually violating her.

She yelled at him and he ran off and jumped into bed with another person, presumably in an attempt to hide.

The Gilbert said the man had been on bail for 15 months without any offending or breaches. Home detention was seen as a punitive and deterrent sentence and not an easy option. Twenty-four-hour a day monitoring would help address any public safety concerns.

Gardening on community work would allow him to contribute something positive with his outdoor skills.

Judge Gilbert told him: “You are a simple person who lives alone. Your best friend is your dog. You spend your time gardening for others often for little or no money. This gives you some relief from the flashbacks that you experience.”

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A fraudster has been given two weeks to come up with the $3750 she conned out of two victims, or face a possible jail sentence.

Ann-Marie Kathrine Smith, a mother aged 30, says she will have access to the money, but Christchurch District Court Judge Tony Couch said: “Actions are required, not words.”

Through defence counsel Kirsten Gray, Smith also offered an additional emotional harm payment of $1000 to one victim and $500 to the other.

The judge said there were only two sentencing options – prison or home detention. He remanded Smith on bail to April 26 for one more sentencing date and told her: “This case has been dragged out by various means for a long time. There will be finality on that date, one way or another.”

Smith admitted two charges of obtaining money by deception last year, and was remanded for sentencing. In the meantime, she has filed an appeal to the High Court to get continued name suppression, which failed, and there has been a problem getting an address assessed for home detention.

When her pre-sentence report was being prepared, Smith told the interviewer she would bring along the money to court to repay her victims. Miss Gray said Smith had attempted the get the money but it was not in a form where she could gain access and she did not have it at today’s scheduled sentencing.

Judge Couch said she needed to prove this money existed and she was legally entitled to it. Better still, she needed to bring the money to her sentencing.

He said: “We know that little weight can be placed on this woman’s words. She lies. It’s as simple as that.”

Smith met a customer she did not know at a bank branch in New Brighton in December 15, and within a short time had told her such a story of her family misfortunes that the woman withdrew $3000 from her account and loaned it to her. The money is still outstanding.

She got another woman to give her a $750 cheque to pay for travel, but instead used the money to pay associates.

Judge Couch said he was reluctantly granting the two week adjournment to get a home detention check completed on Smith’s address and for her to come up with the money for the victims.

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A jury has accepted two women’s evidence of sex offending dating back as far as the 1950s, and convicted a 77-year-old man on eight charges.

Justice David Gendall also lifted name suppression on Sidney John Hurst as the eight-day trial ended in the High Court at Christchurch.

Hurst’s defence was that the memories of the two women were wrong or had been reconstructed over the years because of their antipathy towards Hurst.

But after retiring to consider its verdicts for more than a day, the jury of 11 remaining jurors returned guilty verdicts on all charges. On one charge, it was a majority verdict but the others were all unanimous.

Hurst stood impassive in the dock as the verdicts were read, but there were hugs and tears among people gathered in the public gallery.

The offending related to two girls – six charges involving one of them and two charges for the other – between 1955 and 1975. One woman told of offending as far back as 1955 and the other alleged offending dating back to 1967.

Some of the charges were so old that they had to be brought under the 1908 Crimes Act rather than the current legislation.

Hurst denied raping one of the girls when he was a teenager, and repeatedly indecently assaulting both girls when one was aged up to 13 years and the other aged up to 14.

Crown prosecutor Deidre Orchard had told the jury that the rape occurred when one of the women was aged five or six. The girl had not understood what happened at the time, but she had since realised from her memories of the sights and movements that she must have been raped.

Justice Gendall remanded Hurst in custody for sentencing on June 14.

He thanked the jury members for their service, and thanked the counsel – Mrs Orchard for the Crown, and Pip Hall QC and Ethan Huda for the defence – for their conduct of a difficult trial.

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A jury has been unable to reach agreement in the seven-day trial of a 31-year-old meth dealer charged with stupefying and raping a woman on the West Coast in 2014.

The jury deliberated from 3.30pm Tuesday, after Christchurch District Court Judge Brian Callaghan completed his summing up.

They had been considering the case in the jury room for seven-and-a-half hours before they sent a note to the judge saying that they would not be able to reach verdicts. They had signalled they were stuck some hours before and were given a direction by the judge.

In their final note they said they were “hopelessly deadlocked” and there was no hope of resolution – not even an 11-1 majority verdict.

Judge Callaghan remanded the man in custody for a pre-trial call-over in Christchurch on June 16 to consider a new trial date. Interim suppression continues.

The trial had begun on Monday last week, when the woman gave evidence alleging that she must have been given a different drug – the Crown said it was likely the date-rape drug GHB – when the man came to her Greymouth house in February 2014 to supply methamphetamine and take drugs with her.

He had supplied her regularly with methamphetamine.

Crown prosecutor Andrew McRae said the woman was an addict who was used to the effects of methamphetamine, but this time she had felt tired and sick. She said she had then been raped by the man while she was affected by the drug.

Defence counsel Marcus Zintl attacked the credibility of the complainant, and also a witness who gave evidence that the man had been in possession of GHB about that time. He said the defence case was that the woman’s drug taking could have led to hallucinations, false memory, or she had made up the attack.

Expert witnesses were called at the trial to give evidence about the effects of drugs, and their impact on memory.

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A 22-year-old has admitted manipulating and deceiving an older woman into giving her over $75,000, and then spending the money on clothing, makeup, alcohol, concerts, accommodation, and flights.

The police summary of facts said Ngahemo Wells met the victim at a volunteer centre in 2015, and started asking her for money in 2016.

Wells freely admitted she manipulated and deceived the woman into making 22 financial transactions, either by cash or bank account transfers, amounting to $75,547, the summary said.

She was charged with obtaining the money by deception.

Defence counsel Tom Smedley said Wells was willing to make reparation payments to the victim, and she had told him she had drug addiction issues.

Christchurch District Court Judge Gary MacAskill continued an order suppressing the fraud victim’s name, and denied the request for the suppression of Wells’ name. He remanded her on bail for sentencing on July 5.

He ordered a pre-sentence report including a report on Wells’ suitability for a home detention sentence, and an alcohol and drug report.

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An arrest warrant has been issued for fraudster Ann-Marie Kathrine Smith who was in Christchurch Hospital when she was due at court to be sentenced and to repay her victims.

Christchurch District Court Judge Tony Couch – who had returned from leave to do the sentencing – issued the warrant after hearing from defence counsel Kirsten Gray and reading a medical certificate that had been faxed through.

Miss Gray said she had phoned the doctor treating her at the hospital to confirm that Smith was there, and was able to tell the judge about her medical condition.

Judge Couch said: “The medical certificate is totally inadequate. It only says that she will be fit for work tomorrow. If she is fit for work tomorrow, she must be fit for court today.

“No weight can be attached to the certificate. It is so brief as to be effectively useless.”

Smith, a 30-year-old also known as Anna-Ria Melroy, pleaded guilty in January to two charges of obtaining money by deception from two women. She had told such a story of family misfortune to a Kiwibank customer that the woman loaned her $3000 on the spot, and she got another woman to pay $497 for Smith to make a trip to Rarotonga, but she paid the money to associates.

Smith was due for sentencing two weeks ago but the case was adjourned to today to give her the chance to get the money to pay the victims back. She assured the court that she would have the money available by today.

Today was at least the third time that Smith has not attended court appearances for medical reasons. For one appearance last year she told the court she was in hospital, and for another she said she was having oral surgery. Her appearances were excused on those days.

Judge Couch said today: “The difficulty here is that she has an extensive history of telling lies to suit her own purposes. These matters have been prolonged by many actions of Miss Smith. She has dragged this out now for nearly a year-and-a-half.

“There can be no further remands. I am not satisfied she is unable to attend. There will be a warrant to arrest.”

Since pleading guilty in January, Smith has had the case recalled to apply for name suppression, and then appealed to the High Court when that was refused.

She had two appearances in the High Court before the suppression appeal was thrown out, and the case has now been called twice in the District Court when sentencing could not go ahead.

At the first sentencing date, Judge Couch noted that Smith told the probation officer in an interview that she would bring along the money to court to repay her victims. The judge was told that she could not access it immediately, so he gave her two weeks to come up with it.

He said she needed to prove the money existed and she was legally entitled to it. Better still, she needed to bring it to court.

He said: “We know that little weight can be placed on this woman’s words. She lies. It’s as simple as that.”

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A teenager who allegedly told the police she had been abducted for sex was charged with making a false statement, in the Christchurch District Court.

The 17-year-old was granted name suppression, and given a registrar’s remand to appear in the North Shore District Court on May 17.

Police say she made the complaint, saying she had been kidnapped in Spreydon, Christchurch, about 5.20pm on April 16.

The charge alleges that on April 17 the young woman made a statement before an officer, namely a report of abduction for sex, which would amount to perjury if made on oath in a judicial proceeding.

The woman is now living in Auckland and flew to Christchurch for today’s initial court appearance, and to apply for the case to be transferred.

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A man who posed as a social worker to groom a group of teenage runaways and the did an indecent act on one of the boys as he slept has been jailed for two years.

The man continues to deny the offending after being found guilty at a jury trial in November.

The probation report for his Christchurch District Court sentencing assessed him as a low risk of re-offending, but Crown prosecutor Karyn South said his continued denials must make him a high risk.

Judge Paul Kellar told the 38-year-old man that the pre-sentence reports by probation and by health professionals did not provide “any reliable or credible information about your life or personal circumstances”.

Miss South said: “I accept there has got to be some sort of mental health issue going on in this case. We haven’t got to the bottom of it.”

The man has been having a difficult time while he has been held in custody pending sentencing on charges of meeting young people for sexual grooming, two of supplying under 18-year-olds with cannabis, and the indecent act on a 14-year-old boy.

His interim name suppression has been continued because he still has another jury trial.

Defence counsel Andrew McKenzie said the man was very concerned for his safety in jail. “This is due to the background, the nature of the offences, and the difficulties he has already had in jail. He is concerned that those entrusted to protect him may not be able to do so.”

The man was originally charged with drugging and sexually violating a male couch surfer in May 2014, indecently assaulting another person in September 2014, stealing a Cash Advance card worth $20 from a third person, stealing a driver’s licence from a man in October, and making an intimate visual recording. He had denied all those charges.

Those charges were eventually dropped, because the tourist victims had returned overseas and were apparently getting on with their lives and not “engaging” with the prosecution about returning for a trial.

But while on bail on those charges, the man was arrested on the charges relating to the young people he met at a suburban Christchurch fast food outlet when he was posing as a social worker. He bought the group food, took them shopping, took them for rides in his car, and gave them $100 to buy cannabis before getting them to stay the night at his house in Aranui.

During the night, a 14-year-old boy woke to find his pants and underwear had been lowered and the man was lying closely behind him.

The man’s bail conditions had been meant to prevent contact with young people.

The Crown said the offending involved a high level of premeditation: the man had posed as a social worker, built the trust of the young people, paid $100 for their cannabis, and had told them to duck down out of sight in his car until the door or his garage had closed. They were told to stay away from the windows while inside his house, and there was an “exit strategy” if the police arrived.

The man did not accept that evidence, which emerged at his jury trial.

Judge Kellar said the victim of the indecent assault had been vulnerable because he was young and asleep. He would have been affected by the cannabis. “It is well established in the scientific community that using cannabis by those whose brains are still in a state of formation has serious consequences for them.”

He imposed a total of two years’ jail, to be followed by nine months of special release conditions. He read the man a warning under the three strikes law which imposes heavier penalties on repeat violent or sexual offenders. The man will be registered as a child sex offender.

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A teenager who was captured while attempting to rob the Campus Corner Dairy in Upper Riccarton has been jailed for one year ten months.

Quade Mihaere Kavanagh was with an alleged co-offender who was armed with an axe, when he entered the dairy on August 29 at 3.45pm, demanding money.

Kavanagh and the shop assistant wrestled on the floor while the co-offender drew the axe out of his bag and held it above their heads.

The co-offender saw members of the public watching the incident and ran out of the shop, but Kavanagh was held by them until the police arrived.

Crown prosecutor Nicola Pointer today withdrew the charge of aggravated burglary, and replaced it with an attempted aggravated robbery charge.

Defence counsel Allister Davis said Kavanagh did not know the other man was armed, and was very remorseful for what happened to the man in the dairy.

He said Kavanagh, who will turn 19 in prison, had taken positive steps while on remand, and received several certificates.

Judge Gary MacAskill gave Kavanagh the first strike warning that imposes heavier penalties on repeat violent offenders, and told him he would give him leave to apply for a home detention sentence if a suitable address could be found.

He said he was also sentencing Kavanagh on a charge of burglary, where with the same alleged co-offender, he entered a house in Christchurch and stole a safe with passports and jewellery in it.

He said Kavanagh’s pre-sentence report said he expressed regret and remorse, and was willing to pay reparation for the offending.

It said he had a “steady” fall from grace. He had found work and then drugs, and settled on alcohol and cannabis. He felt cool with his older associates.

Judge MacAskill said the alleged co-offender was being dealt with in the Wellington District Court.

He said aggravated robberies were prevalent in the community with a high risk to the staff of dairies.

He imposed the sentence and ordered that Kavanagh be assessed for substance abuse treatment and programmes, and training programmes. He also ordered a reparation payment of $3734 for the safe and its contents.

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Convicted fraudster Ann-Marie Kathrine Smith has made an appearance at the Christchurch District Court office a day after a warrant was issued for her arrest because of a sentencing no-show.

The 30-year-old was in hospital yesterday, but Christchurch District Court Judge Tony Couch did not accept her explanation for not appearing for sentencing on two charges of obtaining money by deception.

He said the medical certificate which had been faxed through saying that she would be fit for work on Thursday was “effectively useless” and issued the arrest warrant. He cited her history of telling lies.

Smith was at the Court House this morning. She saw a registrar and arranged to make a voluntary appearance in the main list court on Friday afternoon.

Her sentencing has now been delayed twice – the first time so that she could arrange to get money to pay $3495 back to her two victims.

Smith remains on bail.

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Three foreign visitors have denied involvement in a 5kg drug importation intercepted at Christchurch International Airport three weeks ago.

The not guilty pleas to charges of importation of MDMA – commonly known as ecstasy – and possession of the drug for supply were put in at the Christchurch District Court today.

Two of the defendants appeared before a judge and the other entered the pleas before a court registrar.

The charges specify that the powdered drug was found in a Samsonite suitcase.

Vladimir Turovsky, a 32-year-old dive shop owner, and Vadim Shkolnitski, 35, a truck driver, are from Russia, and Ganna Manchenko, a 31-year-old woman employed as a cook, is from the Ukraine.

A Russian interpreter was in court for the appearance of two of them before Judge Gary MacAskill today.

The trio were remanded in custody for a Crown case review hearing on June 12, but defence counsel Steve Hembrow said Manchenko would also apply for release on electronically monitored bail at a hearing on May 15.

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Convicted fraudster Ann-Marie Kathrine Smith will spend 11 days in custody ahead of her Christchurch District Court sentencing, after failing to appear on Wednesday.

She was taken into custody at the Court House yesterday after arranging a voluntary appearance, and was then remanded in custody for sentencing on May 9.

Judge Gary MacAskill refused bail for Smith on two charges of obtaining $3495 from different victims by deception in incidents well over a year ago.

Smith had contacted her defence counsel Kirsten Gray on Wednesday to say she was at Christchurch Hospital, but the judge that day described the medical certificate provided as “effectively useless”.

It was the third time 30-year-old Smith had used medical reasons to ask for court appearances to be excused. Her sentencing had been delayed to Wednesday to give her time to get together the money to repay her victims.

Judge MacAskill said he was satisfied the sentencing had been unnecessarily delayed and no further delay was excusable.

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An Invercargill 20-year-old has been given 80 hours of community work for the Canterbury leg of his 720km South Island journey that involved three police pursuits.

Christchurch District Court Judge David Saunders decided not to add to the disqualification that Michael George Massie has already received for another part of the same trip.

Defence counsel Phillip Allan explained Massie was already disqualfied from driving until 2021 after a sentencing in an Invercargill court in December.

Judge Saunders said: “He already has a substantial period ahead of him. If he continues to breach orders he will be going to jail, because he now has a history of vehicle offending.”

Massie admitted dangerous driving near Woodend in an incident on October 14, in what the judge said was “a recipe for disaster”. He had been reported by a member of the public speeding and crossing the centre line.

The incident was part of a journey from Nelson to where he stopped his car near Waikouaiti, Otago. He was caught walking across a field after turning off the highway and leaving the car as police were deploying road spikes.

Police had tried to catch him three times during the big drive.

Judge Saunders told him there had been four road deaths in Canterbury during the last week, in which drivers had apparently crossed the centre line in two crashes.

“You could well have killed yourself or some other innocent road users. You need to take a good, hard look at yourself,” the judge told Massie as he imposed sentence.

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File image. © Andrew Bardwell

Thirty-four-year-old Lee Dixon has begun a 14-year 6-month jail term for importing cocaine that would have been worth up to $2.4 million on the streets, while he was on home detention.

No cocaine was ever found, but the High Court in Christchurch was told of evidence of payments, communications, and a 10kg package labelled as a “submersible pump” which was sent by FedEx from Venezuela and delivered to Rakaia. It was never found when the dealings were investigated.

Dixon admitted charges of importing the class A drug into New Zealand in 2015, four charges of supplying it, offering to supply it, and refusing to provide police with a computer password under the Search and Surveillance Act. He faced a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Although he admitted the offending, he disputed the amount of drug involved and a hearing had to be held before the sentencing. Justice Nicolas Davidson found that the evidence showed Dixon had important no less than 6kg of cocaine.

Dixon, an air conditioning engineer, was already on home detention for a charge of importing a small amount of cocaine for personal use. He used connections he had made in South America to import more. The Crown alleged he was a key player.

Prosecutor Nicola Pointer said Dixon had been involved in a high level, sophisticated, commercial cocaine network, which would have distributed the drug all over New Zealand. There should be an increase in the sentence because the offending happened while he was on home detention.

Justice Davidson said no evidence had emerged during the disputed facts hearing about any large scale presence of cocaine in New Zealand at the time. He disputed there was any sign of a “sophisticated” network that Dixon was connected to. “His communications weren’t sophisticated. They were naïve and really useless in terms of being coded.”

The Crown said the street value of the cocaine at the time was between $2.1m and $2.4m.

Defence counsel Michael Starling said no cocaine was found, but texts were found about Dixon selling small amounts. He had been using drugs since he was 18. He had used cocaine with friends in Britain, where it was cheaper and more readily available. He came to New Zealand having developed a recreational appetite for cocaine.

He said cocaine caused less harm and was a less addictive drug than methamphetamine, but Justice Davidson said, “The authorities don’t indicate a distinction should be drawn.”

The judge said Dixon had sent $109,797 in United States currency overseas to buy cocaine from Colombia, and had handed another $70,000 to an undercover officer in Hagley Park, Christchurch, for sending overseas. The Crown alleges it was to buy more cocaine from Colombia.

Dixon’s offending had been “remarkably casual and simple to undertake”, he said. The code he used in communications had been useless, referring to “hattricks” and “scoring a goal”.

“One wonders why you bothered with such a code,” Justice Davidson said.

Dixon admitted he had used cocaine every few days, and at the weekend. He had begun using it again on a 2014 holiday in Colombia after a relationship break-up. He had a seven-year-old child with a former partner, but had not seen his child since his arrest. He did not have a past criminal record usually associated with such serious offending.

Justice Davidson imposed the 14-year 6-month jail term, with a minimum non-parole term of seven years before he can be considered for release from prison.

When a search warrant was executed, Dixon refused to give the police the pass code or access code for electronic gear.  When stopped in his vehicle, US dollars $4000 cash was found in the centre console and at an associate’s address a safe belonging to Dixon was found containing cash of US dollars $6000, a set of electronic scales and a money exchange receipt.

The scales were found to bear cocaine residue.  There were some rather desperately worded messages sent to the defendant at about the time of his arrest which were not answered by him.

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A man caught butchering a stag that had been shot on private property admitted the poaching charge, and was fined in the Christchurch District Court.

Darrell Maurice Smith, a 53-year-old shearer, and an alleged co-offender, George Stuart Aitken, a 26-year-old pest control worker, were charged with killing a deer on Windford Hills Station, Waiau, North Canterbury, without the permission of the land-owner.

Defence counsel for Smith, Claire Yardley, said Smith had permission to be on DOC land, but went over the other side of the river and didn’t know he was on private land. He didn’t have a map, and didn’t know where the station started and stopped, she said.

Sergeant Glen Pascoe said the manager of the station was hunting on March 29 when he heard gunshots clearly within the boundary, and called police.

Judge John Macdonald said he accepted Smith was unclear about the status of the land he was on, and fined him $1000.

Aitken was given a registrar’s remand to May 30 to apply for legal aid, so did not need to appear in the court room.

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A 25-year-old faces serving all of the jail term he gets for an armed dairy raid where the owner and his wife fought back.

Edward Paul Paterson is a second-strike offender who pleaded guilty to an armed burglary charge at the Christchurch District Court today, just as his trial was due to start.

Judge Gary MacAskill read him a second-strike warning, which means he will serve all of whatever term is imposed, without parole or early release.

The warning means that if he ever commits a third serious violent offence he will get the maximum jail term for that charge.

Judge MacAskill remanded Paterson in custody for sentencing on June 21. He asked for a pre-sentence report and a victim impact statement.

Defence counsel Andrew Bailey said Paterson had expressed interest in a restorative justice meeting, which would be a chance to apologise to the dairy owners – Kamlesh Patel and his wife Neeta, of the Opawa Discounter dairy.

Crown prosecutor Pip Norman said no reparation was sought because nothing ended up being taken in the incident on July 30, 2016.

Judge MacAskill said it was “probably pointless” seeking a report on Paterson’s ability to pay emotional harm reparations to the victims because he would have no resources available.

Paterson pleaded guilty to one charge of aggravated burglary – entering the shop with intent to commit a crime while armed with a taser. Six other charges mainly alleging unlawful possession of weapons were withdrawn.

Miss Norman said no summary of facts was available for the court yet. Because of the last minute change of charges it was still being amended and would be provided before sentencing.

Coverage at the time said that it was the fourth time Kamlesh Patel had battled armed raiders at his dairy in Opawa Road. It was the third time the offender came off second best, he said.

The incident happened soon after the dairy opened about 8am. Patel was out the back of the store but came out when he heard the door bell sound.

He found a man wearing a balaclava behind the counter, trying to open the shutter where the cigarettes were kept.

He grabbed the intruder by his hoodie and called to his wife and daughter for help.

During the struggle that followed, he pulled the man’s balaclava off, partly revealing his face.

The man tried to use a stun gun, and while Patel was protected by his leather jacket, his wife received a bruise on her arm.

The intruder ran out, but the Patels ran after him and noted his car’s licence plate.

Police set up a cordon and stopped the car on Tunnel Road a short time later. They found weapons in the vehicle and arrested Paterson.

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