Former Rebels gang president Albert Enoka has been jailed for 10 years for a violent stand-over and kidnapping incident, but the judge ruled out an open-ended term of preventive detention.

Enoka was the president of the gang’s Christchurch chapter in February 2015 when the armed home invasion took place at a New Brighton address.

The man who went with him, Lindsay Trevor Francis, 25, was a gang prospect. He was jailed for four years last year for his role in the incident.

Christchurch High Court judge, Justice Gerald Nation, considered reports on Enoka’s risk of violent reoffending at his sentencing. One of the health assessors who examined Enoka was not convinced that preventive detention was necessary to manage his risk to the community.

Justice Nation noted that Enoka had already made some progress while on remand in custody and his behaviour had improved.

Enoka was seen as having a “chronic anti-social lifestyle” and described feelings of worthlessness. Relapse into violent ways could occur if he returned to substance abuse and reconnected with gang culture.

Justice Nation said his normal response was to show how strong and violent he could be when he felt he was being demeaned or put under pressure.

Enoka, a 33-year-old father, had pleaded guilty to charges of kidnapping, aggravated burglary, wounding with intent to injure, unlawfully removing an impounded vehicle from a yard, possession of methamphetamine and cannabis for suppy, unlawful possession of a firearm, driving while disqualified, and giving false information.

Justice Nation said the incident took place when he was under the influence of methamphetamine, angry and jealous about an irrational and wrongful idea that a man had been having sex with a woman Enoka considered to be his girlfriend.

The home invasion in which the two men were armed with knives was followed by rooms being ransacked, property being taken, the victim being punched and threatened, and the woman being detained. The man received a broken tooth, another tooth knocked out, and injuries requiring 20 stitches.

Enoka later dropped off a bag with a woman he knew. The woman found methamphetamine and cannabis inside and reported it to the police.

Witnesses at the scene of the home invasion described Enoka as “hysterical”.

“It occurred when he was under the influence of methamphetamine, somewhat paranoid and certainly irrational,” said the judge.

Crown prosecutor Chris Lange said it was a “borderline” case where preventive detention could be considered. Enoka had undergone rehabilitation in the past but had tended to fall back into his previous ways after release from prison.

Defence counsel Tony Bamford said the health assessors’ reports indicated there were background issues that Enoka needed to work on but he was regarded as being capable of rehabilitation.

The judge imposed a series of jail terms totalling 10 years and disqualified Enoka from driving for a year. If he failed to make progress on rehabilation during his jail term, the Department of Corrections could monitor and control him through an extended supervision order after his release.

That would enable them to monitor associations he made and ensure he was not involved in the substance abuse “which has been such a significant factor in your offending”.

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A teenager was jailed for two years three months after admitting being the driver of two unlawfully taken cars which were involved in police chases in June.

In the Christchurch District Court, Ethan Stuart Batt, 19, was sentenced on two charges of failing to stop for police, resisting police, reckless driving, two charges of unlawfully taking cars, two charges of driving while disqualified, driving in a dangerous manner, burglary, and breach of sentence release conditions.

His spate of crimes started on May 15 when he smashed a French door window of a house in Waimea Terrace. He took clothing, shoes, and personal items worth $660.

On June 13 he took a car from Timaru, and was seen driving it in Linwood on June 16.

Police attempted to stop the car but Batt sped up and was driving up to 100kmh in a 50kmh zone. The pursuit lasted five minutes through Burwood and Avonside, but police abandoned it because of the speed and the dangerous driving. Batt lost control of the car in Gloucester Street and took off on foot.

On June 25, Batt took another car from an address in Sumner. Police again tried to stop him, but he headed up Wilsons Road and continued to weave through the streets of the area trying to lose the patrol car.

Police laid spikes and one of the rear tyres deflated but he kept on driving onto Brougham Street. Another police unit laid more spikes, but Batt drove on the wrong side of the road against the flow of traffic making other road users take evasive action to avoid a collision.

Police abandoned the pursuit, but Batt stayed on the wrong side of the road as he drove for around 30 minutes through the central city, and circling the four avenues.

He swerved at police cars as the police continued using road spikes to stop him, and eventually all the tyres were deflated.

He was forced to stop on Deans Avenue, ran directly at the police patrol, and attempted to punch police. He struggled as he was being arrested.

Judge John Macdonald said he was jailing Batt for two years three months, and he had to pay reparation of $660 for the burglary. He disqualified Batt from driving for a further 18 months after his current disqualification ends in March 2018.

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Name suppression has lifted on the 18-year-old woman charged with the murder of Alicia Nathan, at a house in Avonhead three weeks ago.

The order was not continued when Katrina Roma Epiha appeared at a pre-trial call before Justice Gerald Nation in the High Court at Christchurch today.

It had been granted at the woman’s first appearance in the Christchurch District Court two days after the alleged murder took place.

Epiha, described as a trainer from Avonhead, was today remanded without plea to appear again in the High Court on September 29.

She will remain in custody, and no bail application has been made.

Defence counsel Trudi Aickin asked for the remand to consider details of the police case which are now being made available to the defence.

She did not ask for name suppression to be continued and Justice Nation lifted the order.

Police allege Alicia Nathan, also known as Robinson, the mother of a three-year-old, was stabbed at a party at a house in Avonhead Road on August 6.

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The system tries hard, but it struggles to deal with the problem of Christopher James Taylor.

And there are casualties along the way.

People don’t get thanked for the help they provide.

Taylor has been the victim of abuse and he has mental health problems.

At age 45, he lives a desperate, chaotic life style.

He has no money, no home, no family, no friends, and few possessions.

He regularly loses his spectacles and his ID. That means his access to his benefit ends, and his accommodation disappears.

He resorts to offending to live, until Mental Health Services gets him back into the system.

As Christchurch District Court Judge Emma Smith said at his sentencing: “Where you sleep on any given day is in the hands of the Gods. You don’t have the resources to participate in life like the rest of us.”

Last year, Taylor faced sentencing for two charges of assault, wilful damage, and burglary.

Judge Peter Rollo took what Judge Smith described as “a rather audacious step” and decided to put him on intensive supervision since nothing else seemed to work.

The sentence failed. Taylor would not get involved in any of it and he had to be resentenced for those charges today.

In March and April this year, he was apparently missing his ID and his glasses and was caught trying to break into cars, either for shelter or perhaps to steal things.

He was then arrested for receiving a stolen cell phone worth $1000.

He was being processed at the watch house at Christchurch Central Police Station when he took exception to a young constable asking him to remove a cord that was holding his pants up.

Standard procedure, prosecutor Sergeant Kathy Pomfrett explained to the court. All cords and belts are removed at arrest.

The officer never saw the punch that knocked him down and caused a serious concussion.

The officer was off work for at least a month, suffering headaches, lethargy, struggling to concentrate.

So Taylor came before Judge Smith for sentencing on those charges as well.

She struggled to get him to keep quiet, but spoke to him about his interruptions, saying she would “pop you back in the cells” if he didn’t let her speak.

She took aboard the eloquent plea from defence counsel Vicki Walsh to look at Taylor rather than just his issues and the problems he caused. She spoke of how he was “struggling socially”.

The judge then imposed a whole series of sentences amounting to a year’s jail, which he has nearly served on remand, and he will be out soon.

That seemed lost on Taylor, who abused the judge as he was taken to the cells.

Judge Smith accepted that with grace and understanding.

Which is what Christopher James Taylor needs, along with a lot of other help.

Constantly.

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A man has admitted leading police on a car chase that involved speeding across empty red zone sections and crashing through fences.

Andrew Shaw, a 32-year-old who now works for a contracting firm, pleaded guilty to five charges in the Christchurch District Court and was remanded on electronically monitored bail for sentencing on November 1.

Judge Tom Gilbert referred the case for a possible restorative justice meeting with the victim of the burglary that began the incident and the owner of the car involved, a pre-sentence report, and an assessment of Shaw’s suitability for home detention.

Shaw had admitted burglary of a shipping container, dangerous driving, failing to stop for the police, driving while prohibited, and unlawfully getting into a car.

The car, a Toyota Hilux was stolen from the roadside on Attlee Street, Papanui overnight on February 18.

Two weeks later, about 4.30am on March 3, Shaw broke into a locked container at a building site in Evelyn Couzins Avenue, Richmond. He took a large quantity of tools including nail guns, generators, post-hole borers and ladders worth $15,000 and loaded them into the Toyota.

He drove away from the scene but by then the police had been alerted to the suspicious behaviour and saw him stopped at a red light nearby at the corner of North Parade and North Avon Road.

When the police car used its lights and siren, he sped away at 80kmh, with his headlights turned off, and drove on the wrong side of the road.

He drove through a red traffic light on North Avon Road at 50kmh, and then turned onto Evelyn Couzins Avenue where he drove at speed through empty sections and crashed through fences that were securing the red zone area.

He lost control on Medway Street and nearly hit a house before abandoning the car and fleeing on foot. Police caught him soon after on the roof of a house. He was found with a balaclava and two pairs of gloves.

He told police he had been a passenger in the vehicle. He claimed he had been picked up by somebody but would not say who that person was because he was “not a nark”.

Police are asking for reparation orders of $689.25 for damaged property and fences, and $400 for damage to the vehicle.

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A community work sentence has been imposed on a Waikari man who has admitted his second poaching offence, after a deer was shot on Waiau’s Windford Hills Station.

George Stuart Aitken, a 27-year-old pest control worker, initially denied the charge but pleaded guilty at a Christchurch District Court case review hearing.

His co-offender, 54-year-old Hawarden shearer, Darrell Maurice Smith, pleaded guilty immediately and was fined $1000 in May.

But Judge Alistair Garland noted that Aitken had a significant history of offending including a previous conviction for unlawful hunting last year, when he was given a 100-hour sentence of community work.

Aitken was with Smith, who had the firearm and the licence, and a permit to hunt on Department of Conservation land, on March 29.

The pair strayed across a river boundary onto Windford Hills Station where their hunting was heard by the station’s manager who was also hunting.

The manager and his hunting companion saw the pair butchering a stag and waited to speak to them where they had left their packs.

Defence counsel Vicki Walsh said Aitken and Smith had not gone out with the intention of poaching and had no idea that they should not have been in the area where the stag was shot.

Judge Garland said he had to infer from Aitken’s guilty plea that he knew he was on the station and not on the DOC land, and had continued to hunt.

He imposed 175 hours of community work.

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File image. © Andrew Bardwell

A man’s continuing denials of sex offending by touching two girls has led to a 20-month jail term.

Christchurch District Court Judge Alistair Garland said a home detention sentence was not appropriate because of Colin Robert Williams’ “mindset”.

He was found guilty on four charges by a jury at a trial in March. The jury convicted him of touching the girls in the 1990s and early in the 2000s, when they were aged under 16. Some of the offending took place when one of them was aged up to 23.

The jury returned not guilty verdicts on several other charges at the end of the nine-day trial.

Prosecutor Shivani Dayal said the Crown did not believe home detention was appropriate in a case where the offending had been against children, and there was a continual denial, and no acceptance of responsibility or remorse.

Defence counsel Tim Fournier said the sentence would fall within the two-year limit where home detention could be considered, and it should be granted.

But Judge Garland said Williams had caused the victims serious harm, by touching them on the groin area, buttocks, and breasts.

He said noted Williams had previous convictions involving drugs, driving, and dishonesty.

He had told the pre-sentence report writer that he was willing to complete any treatment ordered by the court, even though he continued to deny the offending.

Judge Garland said that because of those denials, Williams could not be regarded as a medium risk of reoffending, and it was unlikely a rehabilitative sentence would be successful.

“I reach the view that there would be a lack of any rehabilitation prospects as a result of your mindset,” said the judge imposing the 20-month jail term.

He said he would grant Williams the chance to engage in “therapeutic intervention” as part of a series of standard and special release conditions imposed for six months after his sentence ends.

Williams, a 49-year-old from Christchurch, also faces registration and continued monitoring as a child sex offender.

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A 30-year-old man has admitted importation of a substance which could produce half a million dollars worth of synthetic cannabis.

Steven Reece Galbraith was charged with importing a psychoactive substance without a licence, which police said was capable of producing up to 25kg of synthetic cannabis.

The police summary of facts said on June 21 NZ Customs Service intercepted a parcel at the International Airport in Auckland addressed to Galbraith and described as organic pigment.

It held 500g of AMB-Fubinaca, which police replaced with a placebo package which was delivered to Galbraith at his home address in Hei Hei.

He then arranged a time with an alleged co-offender to deliver the package to him.

A search at the address of one of Galbraith’s relatives found the burnt remnants of the courier package in the fireplace.

In the Christchurch District Court Judge Brian Callaghan remanded Galbraith on bail for sentencing on October 31. He asked for a pre-sentence report with a report to assess his suitability for a home detention sentence.

The alleged co-offender has pleaded not guilty and is remanded for a case review hearing on October 3.

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Three people charged with murdering a man found injured in a Sumner carpark will go on trial in the High Court at Christchurch on February 19.

The date was set at a pre-trial call-over before Justice Rachel Dunningham today, where the two men and a woman appeared on separate video-links from the prisons. All are in custody.

The case will also be called at another pre-trial call-over on October 20, when dates to hear pre-trial applications may be set.

Cyle Robert Jetson, 21, Moses Eli Hurrell, and Deborah Jean Tihema, a 39-year-old mother from Bromley, are jointly charged with the murder of Pierclaudio Raviola who was found badly injured in a carpark outside the Sumner Surf Lifesaving Club in March. He died in hospital three days later.

Tihema applied this week for release on electronically monitored bail but it was refused after a hearing before Justice Nicholas Davidson.

Defence counsel Tony Garrett said today that Hurrell would make a bail application in about a fortnight. Hurrell is aged 16 but had his automatic name suppression lifted in June.

The three deny the murder charge. Tihema also denies taking a car, and Hurrell denies a burglary charge.

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Police found methamphetamine, a powerful handgun with ammunition, and $8000 cash when they searched a property in Aranui five weeks ago.

They now want to destroy the drugs, firearm and ammunition, and seize the cash, after 28-year-old Dylan Rudd Stuart admitted three charges in the Christchurch District Court.

He pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a sawn-off .44 calibre Scout Magnum rifle and more than 50 rounds of ammunition, and possession of the class A drug for supply.

The meth possession-for-supply charge carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

A woman charged with being a co-offender is due to make a remand appearance at court tomorrow.

Stuart appeared by video-link from the prison today, before Judge Paul Kellar who had refused his application for bail when he first appeared in court on July 31.

The police raid – which was related to another inquiry – took place that day at an Aranui address where police allege Stuart and the woman lived.

They were still in bed in an upstairs bedroom next to a bedroom where three young girls usually slept.

Police found about $8000 cash between the mattress and base of Stuart’s bed, and under the bed was a plastic bag containing hundreds of empty small plastic bags of varying sizes.

In a black satchel next to the bed they found 5g to 6g of methamphetamine with a street value of between $5000 and $6000, and a single bullet. The bag contained Stuart’s identification card.

A box of 50 rounds of .44 Remington Magnum hollow-nosed bullets was found under the bed.

Stuart told police there was a firearm in the car parked outside, and they found the sawn-off, pistol-length rifle in the boot.

Stuart said the satchel was his, and the methamphetamine was his to use.

He said he had had the firearm for three or four days but refused to say where he got it, or why.

Judge Kellar remanded him in custody for sentencing on October 25. He asked for a pre-sentence report to be prepared.

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Two men and a woman with alleged connections to the King Cobra gang have been charged with firearm offences after a police armed offenders squad raid on a house in New Brighton last week.

Liam Kimi Henry-Tikao, 25, and Ariana Buchanan, 22, were granted registrar’s remands at the Christchurch Court House today, and did not need to appear in court.

The registrar remanded both on bail to appear again on September 26. Henry-Tikao faces charges of unlawful possession of a 9mm revolver and ammunition, and Buchanan is charged with unlawful possession of ammunition. They entered no pleas.

Last week, Levi Cheyenne Dronsfield, a 24-year-old labourer, was remanded on bail to September 21, on charges of selling cannabis, and unlawful possession of a revolver and ammunition. He also entered no pleas.

According to the court documents, all three live at the same New Brighton address.

Police raided a New Brighton property on August 31 and said they had arrested three people with King Cobra gang connections. They said the gang had recently started operating in the city.

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Fernside horse trainer Phillip Benjamin Burrows’ actions that led to a boy being run over at a training track were described as “grossly irresponsible” by Christchurch District Court Judge Gary MacAskill.

The judge said he could not understand how someone in Burrows’ situation could be so stupid.

He said Burrows had a high level of culpability for the accident on April 28, 2016, at a training track in Fernside, where the 10-year-old boy apparently fell under the wheels of a water truck as it drove along.

The boy was a friend of Burrows’ son, and the two were playing around the truck – climbing on and off – as it moved slowly along.

Judge MacAskill said: “You knew the boys were getting on and off the truck, and in close proximity to it. Your attitude must be condemned as grossly irresponsible. You took risks with the lives of the boys.”

Burrows clearly had no sensible appreciation of what might happen through a slip, or a miscalculation, or skylarking, he said.

Burrows pleaded guilty in July to a Worksafe New Zealand prosecution, that he exposed someone to the risk of death or serious injury at his workplace or enterprise.

Before his sentencing today, defence counsel Andrew McCormick filed submissions and an affidavit that Burrows had the means to pay a certain amount in reparations, at about $100 a week, but nothing extra.

Worksafe prosecutor DeAnne Brabant said it was the first sentencing of its type, where an individual had been prosecuted under the workplace safety act. The suggested reparation figure was just below the figure Worksafe suggested, but she asked that Burrows be ordered to pay a contribution towards setting up a family trust for the money that the victim would receive.

Mr McCormick said: “Mr Burrows wanted me to express his absolute abject horror at what happened.”

His horse training business was continuing “but the scale of his operation has decreased somewhat because of his own psychological state”.

The boy was airlifted to Christchurch Hospital where he underwent surgery and was admitted to the intensive care unit. He was discharged a month later after treatment for injuries including multiple fractures, a collapsed lung, and a hernia.

Judge MacAskill said he had made a “remarkable but incomplete receovery”.

He noted that Burrows was a first offender. He was seen as having a good character as a family man and businessman. He was seen as trustworthy and reliable, a man of integrity and high reputation.

He noted that from time to time Burrows had let children play around the water truck as it moved along slowly “without a second thought”.

He ordered Burrows to pay emotional harm reparations which will be held in trust for the boy, including for his education, totalling $25,000. Burrows will pay $2000 immediately and the rest by instalments.

He also ordered reparations for the boy’s parents of $226 – the cost of their parking at Christchurch Hospital – which was all they asked for, and $500 to set up the trust.

The judge said Burrows did not have the means to pay a fine as well as reparations, so he would not impose one.

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A 23-year-old Aranui woman has admitted possession of the class A drug methamphetamine for supply, and has been remanded for sentencing with her partner in October.

Possession of methamphetamine for supply carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, but Shontel Marie Riley Hardaker will be assessed for her suitability for home detention ahead of her sentencing on October 25.

Christchurch District Court Judge John Strettell said the home detention assessment was not an indication of the likely sentence, after Hardaker pleaded guilty, a day after her partner.

When defence counsel Andrew Bailey entered the plea for her, police prosecutor Nicola Stratton withdrew charges of supplying methamphetamine, possession of cannabis for supply, and possession of a .44 Magnum sawn-off rifle and ammunition.

Hardaker will remain on bail for her sentencing, which will take place with Dylan Rudd Stuart, 28, who admitted charges of possession of methamphetamine for supply, and unlawful possession of the handgun and ammunition, at another court sitting on Monday.

Police said they found 5g to 6g of methamphetamine with a street value of $5000 to $6000 when they carried out a search on an unrelated matter at an Aranui property where the pair were in bed. They also found $8000 cash underneath the mattress, point bags which are commonly used to hold drugs, and the firearm in a car outside.

Stuart has been refused bail and remains in custody for sentencing.

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A man who put three men at risk by having unprotected sex while he knew he was HIV-positive has written letters of apology to all the victims.

The letters from Johnny Lachlan Benjamin Lumsden, 27, will be given to the Crown by defence counsel Elizabeth Bulger to be passed on to victims, who he met on social media.

Lumsden himself is not allowed to contact the men directly, but he says he now wants to give something back to the community.

Christchurch District Court Judge David Saunders jailed him for two years six months.

Lumsden’s sentencing was told he had offered to work with an Auckland-based community organisation, Body Positive, which provides services to men like him.

Miss Bulger said Lumsden “very much regrets” the harm he had caused, but if he was given a home detention sentence he did not intend to stay at home to serve the sentence. “He wants to be doing something constructive to make good the wrongs he has done”.

Lumsden was appearing for sentence after admitting charges of endangering the health of three men by criminal nuisance, and a representative charge of supplying methamphetamine.

Lumsden knew of his diagnosis since May 2016, but between August and October he met up with the three victims at his home, the Christchurch District Court was told.

When asked by all three victims, he told each of them that he was “clean”.

When police obtained Lumsden’s cell phone they found messages showing that between October and November Lumsden was methamphetamine dealing, and also offering to inject one of the buyers with the drug. He told the person that he had studied nursing and knew how to do it safely.

One of the victims wrote in his victim impact statement that he had suffered a “death of anxiety” while waiting for Lumsden’s case to be resolved.

Deirdre Elsmore said it was difficult to accept Lumsden’s claim that he had a genuine belief that the sexual activity was safe. That seemed to be an effort by him to minimise his understanding of the offending.

Judge David Saunders noted that Lumsden was a first offender. He had been arrested and held in custody while on electronically monitored bail when he was found with syringes. He was discharged on that offence.

It had been “reckless” of Lumsden to have sex with the men when he knew he had been diagnosed as HIV-positive.

The judge imposed a series of jail sentences totalling two years six months.

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Feelings were running high for court appearances by  two men charged with the murder of 24-year-old Bradley Lomax, whose body was found on the Waimakariri riverbed a week ago.

Extra police were on duty in the main Christchurch District Court room for the brief appearances by the pair, but there were still brief verbal exchanges which led Judge Raoul Neave to shout for people to “Be quiet.”

The men were remanded in custody by Judge Raoul Neave for an appearance in the High Court on September 29.

When the 30-year-old from Mairehau appeared, defence counsel Josh Lucas asked for the remand and for interim name suppression. He said the police did not oppose the order being made because the investigation was continuing. He also said the man had not yet had a chance to tell his relatives what was happening.

Judge Neave made the order, which he said could be fully argued at the High Court appearance.

As the first man was led back into custody, a woman in the public seating said quietly: “May Bradley have justice on your soul.”

Judge Neave said: “Keep quiet or he won’t be the only one going through the door to the cells.”

The other man, Kasha William Gosset, a 35-year-old landscape gardener from Oxford, did not seek any suppression order.

“Why are you smiling?” asked a man in the public gallery when Gosset appeared.

The face-off and comments continued while he made his brief appearance, and police ushered people out of the public seats as soon as he was remanded.

Lomax, a member of the Rebels Motorcycle Club gang and the father of a boy, was found near Harrs Road, Swannanoa, by a group of four-wheel drivers on September 4.

Thirty detectives worked on the week-long investigation that led to the pair being arrested on the day when about 300 people attended Lomax’s funeral at St Columbus Anglican Church in Hornby.

The men entered no pleas to the joint charges of murdering Lomax at Kaiapoi on September 4.

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Rangiora businessman John Robert Stevens has admitted aiding and betting the non-payment of nearly $250,000 to Inland Revenue, a year after the liquidation of the Shalimar Knitwear company he owned.

Stevens, 65, admitted 34 charges of aiding and abetting the company to pay tax deductions or withholding tax for purposes other than payments to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue.

Christchurch District Court Judge Tony Couch remanded him on bail for sentencing on October 20. He asked for a pre-sentence report to consider Stevens’ suitability for a home detention sentence.

Inland Revenue prosecutor Paul Saunders said the company had been set up in 1992, to supply knitwear to retailers all over the country. Stevens and his wife were joint directors.

When the company was liquidated in the High Court a year ago, on the application of the Commissioner, it owed the Commissioner $920,572 in all types of tax, penalties, and interest.

Mr Saunders said: “The company failed to account for $262,987 in PAYE deductions, KiwiSaver employee deductions and employer contributions, Student Loan Employer Deductions, and Employer Superannuation contributions by the due dates (the 20th of each month), for 34 tax periods between March 2013 and January 2016.”

Late payments received after the due dates reduced the figure to $248,394.

Stevens was involved in discussions about PAYE debt, and warned by Inland Revenue officers that failing to pay the tax to the Commissioner could lead to prosecution. “Despite this, the offending continued,” said Mr Saunders.

An analysis showed that on 28 occasions, payment in full could have been made, and that other creditors were paid during this period, Inland Revenue said.

Stevens explained to the department that cashflow issues arising from a defaulted loan, the aftermath of the earthquakes, and insurance issues had led to the PAYE payments not being made.

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A 30-year-old man admitted causing broken bones by punching his victim repeatedly while he lay on the ground at a bus stop on Pages Road, Christchurch.

On November 29, James Ian Norman Bisset, with two associates, approached the man, who turned to walk away.

Bisset punched him in the back of the head, and he fell to the ground unconscious. Bisset knelt beside him and punched him six times in the head, then tried to stand him up.

The victim’s jaw was fractured in three places and required surgical placement of titanium plates and screws. He also had bruising and swelling to the head.

Bisset told the police that he had punched the victim six times in the head as he lay on the ground because he had threatened his family.

In the Christchurch District Court Judge David Saunders accepted Bisset’s guilty plea to the charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and remanded him on bail for sentencing on October 3.

Bisset’s defence counsel Andrew McCormick said Bisset was working and would have funds available at the sentencing to pay emotional harm reparations.

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A woman caught on a household security camera “scoping” a property ahead of two burglaries has admitted nine offences at the Christchurch District Court.

Amanda Cherie Cook, 44 and unemployed, admitted two charges of being unlawfully in an enclosed yard, burglary, receiving stolen property, four thefts including two petrol drive-offs, and breach of her bail.

Defence counsel Glenda Murphy said Cook had been on bail but was arrested yesterday and spent the night in the police cells after reporting late on bail.

Police did not oppose her release on bail again today, and Judge Tom Gilbert remanded her for sentencing on November 16. He asked for a pre-sentence report and referred the case for a possible restorative justice meeting between Cook and her victims.

About 11.30am on May 31, Cook entered a house in Waipara Street, Cracroft. She opened the gates and walked up the drive before trying door handles. She was unable to get inside. Her visit was captured on the house’s security cameras.

About 1pm on May 31, she went into the rear yard of a property in Somerville Crescent in Aidanfield. Her visit was again captured on the household’s security camera.

Later that day, the house was burgled, and electronic items, credit cards, $4000 cash, makeup, and jewellery was taken. Some of the items have been recovered and Cook has been charged with receiving stolen property from that burglary.

During the day on June 2, Cook returned to the Somerville Crescent property, while the householders were out. Again, her visit was recorded on their security camera.

She forced open a side door to the garage and gained access to the garage and house.

She searched the whole house and took a bolt-action rifle with a scope, two laptop computers, jewellery and clothing. The property was valued at more than $8000.

Some of the property including the rifle scope was later found at Cook’s property, but the rifle has never been found.

When police asked her about the burglary and being unlawfully in the yard, she initially denied committing the offences but later conceded she may have committed them because she wasn’t in her right mind – but she wasn’t sure.

Police are asking for reparations for the property that is still missing, and they want to confiscate Cook’s car because it was used for the offending.

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The Chinese director of a gold mining company cannot claim a lack of understanding as a factor that led to unauthorised excavation of a West Coast stream bed, an Environment Court judge has ruled.

Judge Craig Thompson fined the company, Crescent Creations, $17,000 at its sentencing at the Christchurch Court House.

He said: “If the company did not understand the resource consent, then it is the defendant’s problem and nobody else’s.”

He ruled that 90 percent of the fine should be paid to the West Coast Regional Council which brought the prosecution after finding the excavation in February 2016.

Crescent Creations had pleaded guilty to the Resource Management Act charge of breaching its resource consent when it carried out the excavations, an offence that carries a maximum penalty of a $600,000 fine.

Counsel for the company, Hans van der Wal, said that the company director, Yang Wang, “genuinely did not know he wasn’t authorised under the consent to do these particular works”.

He contested the counsel’s suggestion that it had been a deliberate breach of the resource consent issued to the company, which allowed work only on the “dry bed” of the Waimea Stream, which is between Greymouth and Hokitika. There was no evidence of Wang’s knowledge and understanding of the consent, or any deliberate decision to contravene the consent.

There were difficulties about language, he said. Wang had an interpreter with him in court.

Wang did not own the company at the time the consent was issued, and Mr Van der Wal said: “The consent leaves a lot of room for confusion.”

But Judge Thompson said the work was deliberately done, even if it was not “deliberately done with the intent of causing damage”. He noted the issue was acknowledged in the defence submissions which said: “The defendant company’s management simply did not do enough to ensure compliance.”

Council prosecutor Heather McKenzie said a series of infringement notices and an abatement notice about other matters had been issued to the company in the year before the excavation that led to the prosecution. Wang had been present on the day when the digger operator carried out the excavations that dug up nearly 290m of the stream bed, forming a wall alongside.

A flood event soon after filled it in again, but the excavation would have made the riverbed more porous, exacerbating the loss of flow from that section of the river, said the judge.

The hearing was told that Wang was continuing gold mining operations with another company, Gold River Mining, at Waimea Creek and at Kumara.

Mr Van der Wal said: “There is no evidence that there was any real, significant adverse effect on either the base line flows, or the water quality downstream. Before any work started, there was a long stretch of dry main channel, and after that there was a long stretch of dry main channel which had some excavation in it.”

The court was told that the resource consent authorised the company to carry out excavation “on the dry river bed or the flood plain”.

Miss McKenzie said the company had complied with the investigation and immediately carried out rehabilitation work. “The river bed has partly been remediated naturally through a flood event.”

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