A Christchurch judge wants the police to rethink their policy so that insurance companies can have a break from the cost of offending.

Judge Tony Couch wants his views considered by the police at national level.

“I have noted this with several prosecutors, and asked them to follow it up,” he said at a Christchurch District Court sentencing of a man on driving charges.

Christopher Michael Sanders, 29, was before the court after admitting charges of drink-driving, driving while disqualified, and careless driving.

He asked prosecutor Aja Trinder for the amount of reparation being sought and she told him it was $500 – the cost of the insurance excess paid by the owner of a parked car rammed by Sanders.

But Judge Couch said he wanted to know the total value of the damage caused, and that only asking for reparation for the insurance excess was not acceptable.

“I find this policy inappropriate. It means the court is not aware of the extent of the damage this man has caused by his offending.”

If no reparation order was made by the court for the full amount, the insurance company was left to pay for the damage. “This results in increased insurance premiums for all members of the community.”

He then asked the prosecutor to take the issue up. He told her: “It is going to have to be raised at a much higher level, at police national headquarters, because it does seem to be a national policy,” he said.

Defence counsel Tom Stevens then checked with Sanders as he stood in the dock, and found that in this case, reparations arrangements had been made without the court’s intervention. Sanders had met with the insurance company and was gradually paying off the $6000 damage bill directly to them.

Judge Couch said he could take that into account as he sentenced Sanders, who has 10 previous convictions for driving while disqualified or while his licence was suspended.

He also has two convictions in 2013 for reckless driving, and he was disqualified from driving for six months on June 29, 2017, for drink-driving. Two months later, on August 27, he was driving on Marshland Road, near Christchurch, when he veered to the side and collided with a parked car.

He was found to have 644mcg of alcohol to a litre of breath. The legal limit is 250mcg.

Judge Couch said he was concerned that this drink-driving incident was only three months after he was caught the first time for that offence.

Mr Stevens told the court that Sanders said he had not had a drink since the accident and would not be touching alcohol again.

Judge Couch said it had been a serious crash which had shunted the parked car 6m along the road.

He said he only considered a home detention sentence in place of imprisonment because of the positive pre-sentence report from probation and the long gap of nine years since Sanders’ last disqualified driving offence.

He granted a six-month home detention sentence at an address in Hornby, with six months on special release conditions to follow the sentence, and disqualified him from driving for 15 months. When Sanders gets his licence back he will have to abide by the terms of a zero-alcohol licence.

Judge Couch ordered the $500 reparations for the parked car owner’s insurance excess.

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Liquidators of two companies run by Ponzi schemer Paul Clifford Hibbs want to have a say at his sentencing about efforts to recover any of the lost $17.5 million.

The North Island-based liquidators filed a 271-page document on Friday, ahead of Hibb’s sentencing in the Christchurch District Court scheduled for today.

Judge Brian Callaghan decided the sentencing had to be delayed to decide whether the liquidators have standing to speak at victims at Hibbs’ sentencing, and also because a judge would need more time to prepare.

Defence counsel James Rapley said the liquidators had no standing under the Victims’ Rights Act, to present a victim impact statement at the hearing. He questioned the relevance of the liquidators’ document, and its accuracy.

Serious Fraud Office prosecutor Mark Zarifeh had raised the question of whether the prosecution could adopt the liquidators’ submissions, which could be relevant to counter any suggestion that Hibbs had been co-operative.

The liquidators’ report does not suggest there is any money available to pay reparations to Hibbs’ victims. Mr Zarifeh said there was a suggestion of some cash deposits or transfers in Australia, but they had not been able to trace them.

Mr Rapley urged caution about the prosecution “adopting” the liquidators’ submissions because they were not accepted. He said Hibbs had been co-operative and had confessed to the SFO investigators before pleading guilty on October 11.

Many of Hibbs’ victims were at the court to hear that the sentencing could not go ahead. Judge Callaghan further remanded Hibbs in custody for sentencing on May 2. He said the defence and prosecution counsel could discuss the issue in the meantime, but if they could not agree then the issue would have to go to a hearing for a judge to decide.

Hibbs, 49, took the money from 16 different investors and their families and had known many of them for 20 years. He pleaded guilty last year to 25 representative charges of making false statements by a promoter, nine charges of theft by a person in a special relationship, two charges of forgery, and three charges of using forged documents.

He operated an investment advisory business called Cameron Gladstone Investments Ltd from 2002, and Hansa Ltd from 2005. Both companies were in liquidation by the time of his guilty pleas.

At the time of his pleas, the SFO reported to the court: “He had complete control over his client funds. Many of his clients are elderly. Some have lost their entire life savings and given their stage in life are not in a position to recover the capital lost. The agreed loss is not less than $17.5 million.”

The names and details of all of his victims have been suppressed.

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Four lizards – two live and two dead – were found in an Aranui man’s suitcase after it went missing on a flight from Thailand.

Duncan Keith Absolum, a 24-year-old security guard, denied all knowledge of the lizards found in a shoe and an umbrella inside the suitcase.

However, he admitted he had photographed lizards while on holiday using his cellphone.

The Christchurch District Court was told that biosecurity inspectors then seized Absolum’s cellphone and sent the seven photographs to a lizard expert, a herpetologist.

Prosecutor Grant Fletcher told the court: “The herpetologist concluded that when he compared the photographs (from the cellphone and photographs of the lizards that had been found), one of the lizards was ‘unequivocally the same individual’, another was ‘highly likely to be the same individual’, and another was ‘almost certainly the same individual’.”

The expert said he had been able positively to identify the lizards because of their individual markings. He said: “Lizards’ markings are as distinctive as a human’s fingerprint. No two are alike.”

Absolum admitted charges of knowingly making a false declaration on his arrival declaration card, under the Bisoecurity Act, and attempting to possess unauthorised goods.

The lizards are listed as three Calotes emma and one Calotes versicolor.

On May 15, Absolum travelled back to New Zealand via Bangkok and Sydney. When he arrived in Auckland on May 16, it was found that his suitcase was still in Sydney and would be delivered to Christchurch the next day.

A customs officer searched his suitcase in Christchurch on May 17 and found two live lizards – one of them hidden in a shoe, and two found dead in an umbrella inside the suitcase.

The lizards are native to South East Asia and are not found in New Zealand.

The two live lizards were euthanised by a veterinarian.

Mr Fletcher said the lizards were totally prohibited from importation into New Zealand. “Any new species pose a risk to existing native organisms, as well as the risk of ‘hitchhiker organisms’,” Mr Fletcher told the court.

Judge Brian Callaghan remanded Absolum for sentencing on April 27. He asked for a pre-sentence report which will consider Absolum’s suitability for a community or home detention sentence.

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A Russian national arrested at Christchurch Airport 10 months ago has admitted importing 5kg of the class B drug Ecstasy into New Zealand.

Christchurch District Court Judge Raoul Neave accepted the guilty plea from Vladimir Turovsky, a 33-year-old dive shop owner, 10 days before his jury trial was due to begin.

At the time of the arrest in April 2017, the drugs were said to have a street value of about $2 million.

The charge Turovsky originally faced specified that the powdered drug was found in a Samsonite suitcase.

A charge alleging possession of the drug for supply was dropped by the Crown when Turovsky pleaded guilty to the importing charge.

Sentencing was set for February 28, with Judge Neave calling for a pre-sentence report. Turovsky has been in custody since his arrest and remains in custody for the sentencing.

Two other people were also arrested and charged with importing and possession of the drug for supply. They have pleaded not guilty and their trial is scheduled for February 19.

Craig Ruane appeared as defence counsel; Mitchell McClenaghan appeared for the Crown.

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The Crown will call evidence from about 80 witnesses in the three-week trial of Sainey Marong, accused of the murder of Christchurch sex worker Renee Larissa Duckmanton.

Jury selection went ahead for the first High Court jury trial in Christchurch’s new Justice Precinct today, before Justice Cameron Mander.

Marong denies murdering 22-year-old Duckmanton whose body was found burning at the scene of a scrub fire on Main Rakaia Road, north of Rakaia, on May 15, 2016.

Marong is a 33-year-old butcher from Ilam, who has three defence counsel at the trial.

The names of all the Crown witnesses were read to the jury panel so members could signal any knowledge of the witnesses at the time selection took place.

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Internet searches about kidnapping, necrophilia, and whether fire could destroy DNA were found on the cellphone of the man charged with the murder of Christchurch sex worker Rene Larissa Duckmanton, the Crown says.

The jury was told about Sainey Marong’s Internet search history as his trial began before Justice Cameron Mander in the High Court at Christchurch today.

Marong, 33, a butcher from Ilam, denies a charge of murdering 22-year-old Duckmanton whose body was found burning at the scene of a scrub fire on Main Rakaia Road, north of Rakaia, on May 15, 2016.

Defence counsel Jonathan Krebs told the jury that they should focus on matters connected with Marong’s behaviour in the time leading up to Miss Duckmanton’s death and soon after.

He urged them to keep an open mind because “matters only tend to crystallise once you have heard all evidence”.

The case should be considered “through the lens of mental imbalance”, he said. Much of the Crown evidence would not be contested.

Crown prosecutor Sean Mallett said the evidence was overwhelming that Marong had strangled Miss Duckmanton and then left her body on the roadside and set it alight.

He said CCTV footage showed Marong’s silver Audi car driving past Miss Duckmanton several times at her usual place of work on the corner of Manchester and Peterborough Streets about 9pm on May 14, 2016.

She had called her partner and her minder. She said she had a “job” and the customer was taking her to his house for a $300 fee. Footage showed Marong stopping at a cash machine in Riccarton and withdrawing $300.

The last communication from Miss Duckmanton’s phone was at 10.23pm, and after that, calls went straight to voicemail. It was disconnected from the Spark network at 10.25pm and police have never found it.

Her body was found by passers-by who attended a scrubfire on the roadside near Rakaia about 7.30pm on May 15. Her body was half naked and burning. Next day, police found a lighter, a beanie hat, and a sheep’s tongue nearby.

An autopsy showed Miss Duckmanton had been strangled to death, and the lack of soot in the airways indicated she was not alive when the fire began. Swabs taken from her body indicated the presence of Marong’s semen.

Mr Mallett said Marong had arranged to have a sleep slaughtered and had taken its tongue. Testing showed it was the same tongue found near Miss Duckmanton’s body.

He described Marong’s movements on the day after the murder when the Crown said her body was in his car. This included him buying a 2.8 litre bottle of petrol. The Crown says he did not buy the petrol to fill his car, as he told a friend, but to use to burn the body.

Footage would show Marong driving around Rakaia about 7pm attempting to find somewhere to dispose of the victim, he said.

Marong’s DNA was found on the lighter found at the scene, and the hat. Images showed him wearing the hat in the weeks before the death, he said.

His semen was found on the back seat of his car, and Miss Duckmanton’s hair was found in the front passenger footwell of the car, and in a vacuum cleaner used to clean the vehicle.

Marong was arrested on May 26, 2016, about 12 days after the death, he said.

Examination of his phone showed Internet searches that directly implicated him in Miss Duckmanton’s murder, said Mr Mallett.

Weeks before her death he had searched for “What kidnappers use to make someone unconscious”, and information about chloroform, and chemical suppliers. One search was: “Can fire destroy DNA?”

There were searches about kidnapping, and about Christchurch escorts, and multiple searches about necrophilia and men having sex with dead bodies. Several videos had been accessed and viewed.

Marong had exercised his right to silence when arrested but did say, “I was mentally and physically unwell.”

He later told a Corrections officer: “In my country I would be taken outside and killed for what I did.”

He said he had a desire to kill and had previously followed another prostitute.

He also said: “It was like hunting in the wild. They are slaves and she met the criteria.

Mr Mallett said the Crown alleged Marong had intended to kill when he strangled Miss Duckmanton, or he had known that strangling her was likely to cause her death but went ahead and did it anyway.

The trial is continuing, with the Crown calling evidence from more than 100 witnesses

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Appearances by 40 Crown witnesses have been removed from the long list of witnesses to be called at the murder trial of 33-year-old Sainey Marong, after agreement on a document setting out “admitted facts”.

Such documents are commonly produced at trials, where the prosecution and defence agree on facts which can be regarded as evidence without witnesses having to give testimony in court. The document is given to the jury.

In this three-week trial, which started on Monday, the Crown had originally listed more than 100 witnesses to be called, but late on its second day, prosecutor Pip Currie told Justice Cameron Mander and the jury that 40 of the witnesses would no longer be called.

In the defence’s opening statement on Monday, Jonathan Krebs said much of the Crown evidence would be uncontested, and asked the jury to focus on issues of “mental imbalance”.

The trial heard evidence on the second day from the driver for the Christchurch sex worker, Rene Larissa Duckmanton, 22, whose burnt body was found beside the highway near Rakaia after she went missing in May 2016.

The driver told of her contacting him by text to request a ride on the day she disappeared, and how he had driven her to her usual work-place – the corner of Manchester and Peterborough Streets in central Christchurch. The driver described Duckmanton as “an amazing person”.

The trial later heard evidence from passers-by who discovered the burning body at the scene of a scrub-fire near Rakaia on May 15, 2016.

Detective Sergeant Todd Hamilton told the trial of the police’s forensic examination of the scene, which had been covered by a police tent overnight to protect it from the weather.

He told of a BIC lighter being found nearby, and a beanie hat, and the recovery of the burnt body for delivery to the mortuary.

In the opening address on Monday, Crown prosecutor Sean Mallett said Marong’s DNA had been found on a beanie hat and the striking wheel of a lighter found at the scene.

Detective Sergeant Hamilton said the woman’s body had obvious burn marks over most of her body, and her hair was burnt. There was the remains of some clothing around her pelvic area but it appeared she had not been wearing clothing on the top half of her body.

Marong, a butcher from Ilam, denies the charge of murdering the Miss Duckmanton.

The trial is continuing.

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A woman has told of being followed home from work late at night by a car driven by Sainey Marong, about six weeks before he is accused of murdering a sex worker.

The woman, who has name suppression, gave evidence from behind a screen on the third day of Marong’s trial in the High Court at Christchurch on a charge of murdering Renee Larissa Duckmanton, 22.

Miss Duckmanton’s body was found burning at the scene of a scrub fire near Rakaia in May 2016. Marong, a 33-year-old butcher from Ilam, denies the murder charge.

The witness said that in early April, she left work about 10.30pm in St Albans, to drive home in her car. When she was on Moorhouse Avenue she noticed a silver Audi – the car the Crown says Marong drove at the time of the alleged murder – travelling behind her, sometimes with its lights off, and sometimes pulling over briefly.

She called star-555 on her cellphone and reported the driver to the police, and then stayed on the phone while she travelled to Hornby.

The police said a patrol car had been sent and she should keep driving around until they caught up.

She pulled into a service station but the Audi stopped outside and continued following when she drove out.

Between five and 10 minutes later, a patrol car caught up and she pulled over when she saw its flashing lights. The police later told her they had spoken to the driver.

A constable gave evidence of being sent to check the report of a car being driven slowly, with its lights on and off. He expected to find a drunk-driver.

He caught up with the cars on Buchanans Road, at 11.13pm and activated his car’s lights and siren. The silver Audi stopped.

Sainey Marong produced a full licence, and was the registered owner of the car. A breath-test showed no alcohol present.

Marong said he sometimes drove around at night because it helped him to relax, he said. Marong said he had been driving aimlessly and denied following any car.

The constable gave him a verbal warning about his driving, but did not issue a traffic ticket.

The trial is continuing. It began on Monday with a list of more than 100 Crown witnesses to be called. Forty witnesses were deleted from the list on Tuesday, and another five were crossed off today, at the request of Crown prosecutor Pip Currie. The trial did not sit on Wednesday.

The trial, before Justice Cameron Mander and a jury, is being held in Court 12 at the Christchurch Justice Precinct.

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A man accused of being the rooftop burglar who raided The Tannery has been remanded in custody at the Christchurch District Court.

Craig Murray Shaw, 42, was arrested when the police raided a Gloucester Street property on Thursday morning in connection with several commercial burglaries.

He faces three burglary charges and has been remanded to appear by video-link from the prison on March 8. No pleas have been entered.

The alleged burglary at The Tannery shopping precinct in Woolston on November 26 involved jewellery worth $200,000 being taken.

After an anonymous tip-off from a caller, police have found 1500 of the stolen rings.

A Linwood woman, 30, has been charged with receiving stolen jewellery valued at $200,000 from Shaw soon after the time of that burglary.

She made her second appearance at the District Court office today, when a registrar remanded her without plea on bail to March 8, and granted interim name suppression. The suppression order will have to be argued in court at her next appearance.

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A man’s heart-felt apology, delivered from the dock at his sentencing, helped to keep him out of prison as the owner of a “menacing” dog that savaged a 10-year-old boy.

“I want to apologise to the family for what my dog has done,” said 29-year-old Tairawhiti Robinson. “I’m very sorry. I don’t know what else to say, eh?”

“I am very sorry to the boy for what my dog has done to him. I hope you fellas accept this apology from me,” he said after hearing the victim impact statements.

“Thank you, Your Honour,” he said to Christchurch District Court Judge Stephen O’Driscoll and the sentencing then went ahead.

Robinson was wiping his eyes as the judge described the details of the October 15, 2015, attack in Wainoni, by his family pet, Kale.

Robinson had admitted a charge of being the owner of a dog that caused serious injury, after initially denying the charge. He pleaded guilty last year and was remanded for sentence.

Prosecutor Heather McKenzie the judge was entitled to take into account the seriousness of the injury to the boy – now aged 13 – in setting the sentence. The injury was having ongoing effects on the victim and his family.

Defence counsel Bridget Ayrey said a community work sentence was appropriate. Robinson made no attempt to minimise the effects on the child and his family.

After the tan and white American pitbull terrier cross had been classified as menacing in a notice from the city council, he had mitigated the risk on his own property by raising the height of the fence.

On the day of the attack, he could only think that a side garage door had been left open, and the dog had made its way out through the garage.

The dog had been a family pet which had never shown aggression, but when it had been found after the attack it had immediately been surrendered to be euthanised.

She said Robinson had genuine remorse and had no intention of owning another dog in the near future. He was willing to pay as best he could for the victim’s family’s financial costs, and to repay his debt to the community through community work.

Judge O’Driscoll said the dog had been classified as menacing and Robinson had a clear obligation to ensure it was under control at all times and not in a position to attack anyone.

The boy had been playing at a relative’s home in the same street as Robinson and had climbed on top of a fence before the dog attacked, biting him on the right thigh. The boy needed two surgeries, with over 100 stitches, and the scarring would remain for the rest of his life.

The boy’s mother said she had noticed a change in his behaviour. He was conscious of the scar, which was understandable. It had been a traumatic, stressful, and upsetting time for the whole family.

Judge O’Driscoll described the victim as “a brave young man”.

He said that because Robinson had shown empathy and remorse, had been co-operative with the authorities, consented to the euthanising of the dog, and had offered to pay reparation, a prison term was not needed.

But he had to consider imprisonment to deter other dog owners, to ensure they were more rigorous in their supervision and control of their animals.

The interests of the victim could be met by a sentence of community work and reparation orders, he said. He imposed 275 hours of community work, and emotional harm reparations totalling $5000 to the boy and his family, as well as reimbursement of treatment expenses of $529.

He hoped that Robinson would begin the reparations payments to the family as soon as he got a job.

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A couple say they were unwitting drug couriers when they flew into Christchurch with 5kg of Ecstasy worth $2 million in a suitcase on April 6 last year.

Now the Russian man is in custody to begin a lengthy prison term next week, but the Ukrainian woman has been freed to return to her family in Israel.

She says the last 10 months since her arrest on drug charges have been a “nightmare”.

Ganna Manchenko, 32, walked free at the Christchurch District Court today when the Crown agreed to drop charges of importing the class B drug, and possession of the drug for supply.

Judge Tom Gilbert explained to her that the Crown was no longer pursuing charges against her, and the charges were dismissed and she was free to go.

“She is extremely relieved this nightmare is over,” said her counsel Steve Hembrow, outside the courtroom. “She is simply looking forward to getting back to Israel and being able to see her family.”

“She has always maintained that she knew nothing about the drugs that were concealed in the suitcase of her then partner,” he said.

Manchenko has a degree in food technology from a university in the Ukraine, but has retrained as a chef and does that work in Israel.

Her then partner, Vadim Shkolnitski, a Russian national, aged 36 and employed as a truck driver, pleaded guilty today – shortly before a trial had been scheduled – to a charge of importing the Ecstasy, and the Crown dropped the possession-for-supply charge.

Outside the court, lawyer Gregor Morison said Shkolnitski was also not aware of the drugs in the suitcase. “But he accepts he was reckless and should have picked up the signals,” Mr Morison said. “Once he came to understand the law about importation – that if you are reckless you are also guilty – that is the basis on which he has pleaded guilty.”

He was remanded in custody for sentencing on February 28, along with the third person arrested – Vladimir Turovsky, a 33-year-old Russian dive shop owner.

Turovsky pleaded guilty on February 9 to a charge of importing 5kg of the drug hidden in a samsonite suitcase. At the time of the arrests, the drugs were said to have a street value of about $2 million.

The drug, referred to in court as MDMA, was found in powdered form.

A Russian interpreter was needed in court when the other two appeared today.

The two men, Turovsky and Shkolnitski, are being sentenced rapidly next week even if pre-sentence reports cannot be prepared in time. They face jail time, since home detention reports have already been ruled out.

The maximum jail term for importing Ecstasy is 14 years.

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Murder accused Sainey Marong has told how he strangled sex worker Renee Larissa Duckmanton in his car at Templeton to stop her yelling after a dispute.

He told the High Court murder trial that he had become “aggressively agitated”, and said: “I didn’t know what I was doing.”

Marong said he was diabetic and “living in a delusional frame of mind” around the time of the killing of Christchurch sex worker, Renee Larissa Duckmanton.

After being questioned about his bizarre web-browsing history, Marong told the trial: “I was deluded. I was living in a whole new world.”

Marong, 33, gave evidence in his defence on the sixth day of the trial before Justice Cameron Mander and a jury in the High Court at Christchurch. He denies the charge of murdering 22-year-old Miss Duckmanton, who was strangled and her body found at a scene of a scrub fire near Rakaia in May 2016.

Defence counsel Jonathan Krebs said Marong had chosen to give evidence, though he did not have to. He told the jury they would hear “very unpleasant and at times bizarre facts”. He said: “I ask you to be fair to Mr Marong, to listen to what he has to say, and consider it carefully.”

Marong gave evidence after taking an Islamic oath. He said he spoke two other languages but he was comfortable giving evidence in English.

He told the court he had been born and raised in Gambia on Africa’s west coast, where he was a member of the Mandinka tribe. He learned science at high school and economics at university.

He left Gambia on August 28, 2012, which was the last time he had seen his wife and three children.

He arrived in Christchurch in 2014, where he got a job as a halal slaughterman.

He said he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, which was triggered by elevation of his stress hormones.

From January 2016, he noticed changes in his blood-sugar levels. The levels were elevated despite using medication. He contacted a doctor but they could not do anything, he said.

“It was just too much for me,” Marong said. He stopped taking medication and suffered from sleeping and eating disorders, and agitation which showed symptoms of impulsivity. He also noticed a change in his attitude towards sexual activity. He said he became “hypersexual”, which caused restlessness and frequent visits to the red light district.

Sometimes just visiting the area was enough, and sometimes he hired prostitutes for sex. That cost a lot of money. He said he was “living in a delusional frame of mind”, with paranoia and fear of persecution.

He would browse the Internet “round the clock, day and night”, he said after being asked about the police’s account of his Internet searches. He said his browsing history was “just not normal”.

Mr Krebs asked him about searches for “what chemical do kidnappers use?” and chemicals to put on a rag to make people unconscious. He then looked for where chloroform could be bought in Christchurch.

“I was deluded. I was living in a whole new world,” he said.

He said he had no intention of buying chloroform. Asked about the searches about kidnapping a girl, he said: “During the Internet browsing history, that is how I was feeling.”

He acknowledged watching a pornographic video about necrophilia.

He said he picked up Miss Duckmanton and arranged to have sex in his car, in an isolated spot in the city, for $100. When he wanted to take her to his home instead, she said the charge was $300. He got the money from an ATM.

Miss Duckmanton asked him to stop and have sex in the car near Templeton. They had sex in the back seat. He said there was an argument. Miss Duckmanton wanted to go back to Manchester Street. The $300 had been given to her before they stopped.

He insisted on driving on, and Miss Duckmanton began yelling at him, at a time when he said he had been “aggressively agitated.”

“She started yelling at me. The only method I had to stop it was to compress her neck.”

Questioned by Mr Krebs about what he was thinking at that point, Marong replied: “I didn’t know what I was doing.”

Her body remained in the back of the car.

Miss Duckmanton’s family and friends were in tears at the back of the court while Marong gave his account.

In later evidence, Marong produced details of medical tests about that time, when he said he felt unwell, physically and mentally. He said the effects of organ failure were “similar to intoxicating yourself with substance abuse, but mine was natural”.

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A Christchurch fishery broker took $387,225 from seven fisheries companies and lost it through online gambling.

She was ordered to pay $35,200 back to the companies – less than 10 percent of what she took.

Michele Susan Chapman, 46, is now working for Christchurch-based building construction, maintenance, and management corporation and she will spend the next five years paying reparation at $75 a week.

Defence counsel Nicola Pointer asked for final name suppression for Chapman, but it was refused by Christchurch District Court Judge David Saunders at the sentencing. She had interim name suppression until then.

She was the director of Pipelines Consultants Ltd and acted as a broker for Annual Catch Entitlement (ACE), which she tendered out and sold to fishing companies on behalf of the ACE owners.

The Treaty of Waitangi and the Quota Management Act 1986 require that fishers lease ACE to catch a certain quota of fish in New Zealand each year.

Police say the seven fishing companies – companies in Wellington, Hawkes Bay, Nelson, Timaru, Warkworth, and Blenheim – have all dealt successfully with Chapman’s company for years.

During 2013 and 2014 the companies successfully bid or bought fish stocks and sent payments, but the ACE stocks were never transferred to them. In one case, a trust had transferred fish stocks worth $103,236 to her, which were never paid for.

When an audit identified a significant shortfall in the funding, Chapman admitted that the funds had gone through online gambling. She said she had personal issues and a significant online gambling addiction.

Pipelines Consultants Ltd was liquidated in March 2015.

Chapman admitted six charges of dishonestly using documents and one charge of obtaining money by deception.

Judge Saunders said the starting point was a jail term, but he reduced it for her previously clean record, her remorse – she had written apology letters to the victims – and for her guilty pleas.

That meant the sentence came within range of home detention instead of jail. He imposed 10 months’ home detention, 200 hours of community work, and apportioned reparations totalling $35,200 among all the companies.

He said the victims included large companies, but some of the smaller fisheries companies involved might be hit hard by the losses.

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The skipper of the trawler The Lady Sarah has admitted a charge of failing to ensure a proper look-out was kept before its grounding on Kaitorete Spit near Lake Ellesmere.

The 22m vessel went aground in December 2016 and remained on the shingle shore for two weeks before it was broken into pieces and moved to a contractor’s yard.

Skipper Christopher Lee Jarman, 35, of Heathcote Valley, today pleaded guilty to a charge under the Maritime Transport Act, of failing to keep the look-out and causing unnecessary danger or risk to property or persons, including the crew.

The three crew members landed safely when the 129 tonne fishing boat ran aground and sent out a distress signal at 2am on December 15, 2016.

A charge of breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act was withdrawn before Jarman entered his guilty plea.

Prosecutor Heather McKenzie said no summary of facts about the case had been agreed yet, and it was not handed to Judge David Saunders nor read in court. It will be provided for the sentencing which has been set for May 11.

Judge Saunders said he would not call for a pre-sentence report because he expected a community-based sentence would be imposed.

But he asked for submissions by defence and prosecution about how the case should be disposed of. That should include information about the likely consequences for Jarman and any professional certificates that he held.

The charge indicates that he holds an Inshore Launchmaster Certificate.

Jarman was remanded at large – no bail was required.

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At 38 and facing a lengthy jail term, Cade Lee Manuel has decided he is “too old for this”.

That was the message from his defence counsel Anselm Williams as the central Christchurch resident was jailed for four years four months on charges involving violence, escaping, drugs, firearms, and reckless and dangerous driving.

Mr Williams said that after the Christchurch earthquakes, Manuel had full time work in the construction industry and was in a stable position with his family.

But as the work tailed off, he went back to using methamphetamine.

“He has showed a significant amount of insight,” said Mr Williams. “He has decided he is too old for this, and he wants to provide some sort of presence in his children’s lives.”

In the Christchurch District Court, Manuel had admitted receiving a stolen car that was found in his driveway, unlawful possession of a sawn-off 12-gauge shotgun, seven cartridges, possession of methamphetamine for supply, and cannabis in bags.

He also admitted aggravated injury of a police officer who was wanting access to his house, and failing to supply the password for his cellphone.

From incidents in August and October, he also admitted dangerous and reckless driving, failing to stop twice for the police using their lights and sirens, and failing to stop and ascertain injury after an accident.

Judge Farish said Manuel was no stranger to the courts but there had been a big gap in his offending while he was in employment. When things went wrong, he was likely to slip back into old habits with drug use. He needed “to be humble enough to accept some help in that regard”.

The aggravated injury occurred when he was trying to prevent police from executing a search warrant at his address, where he had 22g of methamphetamine and cannabis, a firearm and ammunition, and a stolen car in the driveway.

He jammed an officer’s arm in his door, causing bruising and swelling. He also tried to get away over the back fence, but was caught.

Manuel then failed to give the password for his cellphone to police who wanted to access the phone to find out who he had been selling methamphetamine to.

Judge Farish noted that he had been carrying out a community work sentence and he had paid off almost $10,000 in fines while he was working.

She said the methamphetamine had been part of a commercial operation. She noted his efforts to get better educated while in prison.

She jailed Manuel for four years four months, and disqualified him from driving for two years.

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A jury took less than an hour to reject Sainey Marong’s defence of self-diagnosed insanity, and convicted him of the murder of a Christchurch sex worker.

Supporters of the victim, Renee Larissa Duckmanton, burst into cheers and sobs as the jury foreman delivered the verdict.

Justice Cameron Mander said: “There needs to be silence in court as there has been throughout.”

Miss Duckmanton was 22 years old when she disappeared while working on Manchester Street on May 14, 2016. Her burnt body was found the next evening at the scene of a scrubfire near Rakaia.

Marong, a 33-year-old butcher from Ilam, denied the murder charge saying in his evidence that he had health problems and was “definitely insane” at the time.

His self-diagnosis was not supported by the medical professionals.

Justice Cameron Mander summed up for the jury from 9am today on the ninth day of the trial in the High Court at Christchurch.

The jury went out to consider its verdict before 11am, and indicated less than an hour later that it had reached its verdict.

Justice Mander convicted Marong and remanded him in custody for sentencing on April 20.

The judge thanked the jury members for their service and thanked the lawyers involved.

As the jury left the court room, family members called out their thanks. “Renee thanks you, too,” called one of them.

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A 55-year-old man who threatened to “exterminate” a staff member at a call centre has been convicted and discharged at the Christchurch District Court.

Brendon Richard Arnold pleaded guilty to a charge of offensive or disturbing use of a telephone.

The incident took place over a bill that Arnold said he did not owe.

Police prosecutor David Rusbatch said the incident took place over a few minutes on November 29, when Arnold phoned the call centre.

He abused the call-taker and threatened to come into the workplace and “get” him. The call-taker tried to calm him before hanging up as the abuse continued.

Two minutes later, Arnold called again and another call-taker took the call. He demanded the full name and address of the call-taker in a threatening manner, before call-taker ended the call.

He called one minute later and spoke to a third call-taker, and repeatedly asked for the address of the business.

Mr Rusbatch said Arnold swore and threatened to “exterminate” the call-taker, who tried to calm him down and then ended the call.

Arnold told the police he was “uncontrollably angry about being harassed and he did not owe a debt”.

Judge Jane Farish granted the conviction and discharge.

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The former general manager of a tour company lost his job and was sentenced to community work for arranging for a non-licenced co-worker to drive a tour bus on the Te Anau highway.

Xu Cao, 33, worked for Alps Travel in Queenstown in 2016 when he arranged for a driver, who had an emergency, to leave his licence and logbook in the bus for another driver to use.

He then arranged for a tour guide, who he knew did not have a bus passenger licence, to drive it.

The bus was stopped on State Highway 94 between Te Anau and Milford by a joint police and New Zealand Transport Agency check point.

Defence counsel Peter Doody said Cao’s employment was terminated a month after the charge was laid, and he no longer had anything to do with buses.

Judge David Saunders sentenced Cao on a charge of fraud for causing the driver to dishonestly use another driver’s licence for a financial advantage.

He said Cao cheated the system, and sentenced him to 120 hours’ community work.

The driver of the bus, 23-year-old Suyan Qi, was also found guilty at the judge-alone trial in January and is due to appear in court on March 16, for sentencing or a discharge without conviction.

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A change of defence counsel has led to the murder trial of Franchesca Kororia Borell being delayed in the High Court at Christchurch.

The 23-year-old was due to stand trial on March 19, charged with the murder of 25-year-old Hardeep Singh.

Mr Singh was allegedly stabbed in an incident at a Cashmere Road property on Christchurch Day, 2016, and died in hospital two days later.

Borell has denied the charge of murder. The trial was scheduled to last one to two weeks.

Phil Shamy is to take over as her defence counsel and the case has now been remanded to a pre-trial call-over in the High Court on April 20, which may set a new trial date.

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The munchies were the undoing of a mobster caught having a cook-up inside the house he had burgled.

The police’s culinary collar ended Jeremy Koni’s crime spree targeting isolated rural properties in North Canterbury in June 2016.

Now, 34-year-old Koni, from central Christchurch, is beginning a 37-month jail term.

He says he has cut his gang ties but he starts the sentence with “MMM” – the emblem of the “Mighty Mongrel Mob” – emblazoned permanently across his forehead.

Koni had pleaded guilty to nine charges: three burglaries, receiving property stolen in another burglary, unlawfully taking a truck, possession of methamphetamine, and three charges of driving while disqualified.

The disqualified driving charges carried heavier penalties because he had been convicted at least twice before.

Defence counsel Paul Johnson said Koni wanted rehabilitation and he handed Judge Raoul Neave certificates for courses he had completed while in prison on remand. He said Koni had been cutting his ties with the gang.

Judge Neave said Koni had received property taken from a house burglary in June 2016, and had taken some of it to a second hand dealer the day after the break-in.

Three days later he took a truck from outside a home and drove it to commit the succession of offences in the Oxford area, North Canterbury.

He got into one house through a laundry window that had been left open for a cat. A significant amount of property was taken.

He broke windows to get into another property, searched the house, and stole food and alcohol.

“You had the gall to start cooking food for yourself, until you were trapped by the police at the scene of this last burglary,” said the judge.

When Koni was searched, meth was found.

The crime victims reported feelings of fear and insecurity, as well as the inconvenience.

“As we all know, living in this part of the country, dealing with an insurance company is a good way of wasting large parts of your life to very little purpose,” said the judge.

He noted that Koni’s list of previous convictions included an aggravated robbery.

“There is every chance, that perhaps at long last, you know you need to make some changes so you don’t condemn yourself to an endless cycle of imprisonment.

“It is to be hoped that you have put the gang connections behind you. If you have, it is a positive sign,” said Judge Neave jailing Koni for 37 months and disqualifying him from driving for a year. He made no order for reparation payments to the victims.

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