The murder trial of 19-year-old Katrina Roma Epiha will not go ahead on Monday in the High Court at Christchurch as planned.

The two-week trial was scheduled before Justice Gerald Nation and a jury, with Epiha denying charges of murdering Alicia Nathan, intentionally injuring another woman, and threatening to kill a third woman.

The alleged murder took place during a party at a house in Avonhead Road on August 6, 2017, with Miss Nathan dying of stab wounds.

Justice Nation announced that the trial date would be vacated at a pre-trial call in the High Court today and remanded Epiha in custody for a call-over on September 7, when a new date may be set.

The reasons for the delay have been suppressed.

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Suppression has lifted on a real estate agent who has today admitted a $149,094 fraud charge related to the Izone development in Rolleston.

Shirley Anne Johnston, 66, admitted one representative charge of obtaining the money by deception. She had originally faced 13 charges but the Crown consolidated them into one charge before she pleaded at the Christchurch District Court.

Judge David Saunders remanded her for sentencing on September 20. He asked for a pre-sentence report that will assess her and her Wanaka address for a home detention sentence.

Johnston’s partner, Steven Rolf Gubb, 62, who was a property consultant on the project, has already been jailed for two years nine months for his role in the fraud. He had a previous similar conviction.

Gubb was employed by Hughes Developments Ltd which was managing an industrial park known as Izone, in Rolleston, for the Selwyn District Council.

The Serious Fraud Office said Gubb was employed to sell Izone land, leases, and design and build packages, but if a real estate agent introduced a purchaser to the property they would receive the commission.

Between March 2007 and July 2015 Gubb arranged for an Johnston’s real estate office to receive 13 commission payments worth $300,828, and then she was paid a share of the commission through them, which totalled $149,094.

However the Serious Fraud Office found that 10 of the sale and purchase agreements for the 13 sales in question were shown as “Sale by Private Treaty”, but a commission invoice was generated and submitted for payment by Gubb. In 13 cases the purchasers did not know the real estate agent in any capacity.

Johnston remains on bail for her sentencing.

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A judge has politely suggested that a man who played the role of “frightening gang muscle” in a stand-over incident, should return to his North Island iwi with his striking facial tattoos.

Christchurch District Court Judge Jane Farish asked the 50-year-old about his background and then suggested he return to his Ngati Tuwharetoa iwi in the Central North Island.

“Here, if you have got facial tattoos, you are not seen in a positive light, unfortunately,” she told Kenneth Daniel Hawkins as she jailed him for two years ten months on a robbery charge.

Hawkins had pleaded guilty and been remanded in custody for sentence.

He had become involved in an incident in April 2017 for which two women have already been prosecuted. One of the women had previously been in relationship with the victim. Arrangements were made for a visit from Hawkins, a Mongrel Mob member, to the victim’s Kaiapoi address to take property.

Hawkins went around wearing Mongrel Mob gang insignia, and demanded “money, tobacco, and drugs”. He left with a wallet.

Judge Farish said Hawkins had been asked to make the visit because people believed his appearance would be frightening. “You were obviously employed to be the muscle,” she said.

Defence counsel Elizabeth Bulger handed the judge certificates for the courses and training Hawkins had done while in custody on remand. His notes from the prison describe him as a helpful and co-operative inmate.

He earned respect in prison, and had until recently kept secret the fact that he had a Tikanga Maori arts degree from Massey University in Palmerston North. Miss Bulger said: “This man obviously has the potential to make something of himself if he continues with his commitment to stay out of trouble once he is released.”

He had become involved in a situation that was of someone else’s making and it was not what he expected, she said, though she accepted it did not excuse his behaviour.

Judge Farish told Hawkins: “Your outward appearance does not reflect the man you really are.”

She noted his certificates for doing drug and alcohol courses, and a life skills programme, while on remand. She also noted that he had kept quiet about his Tikanga Maori university degree.

“Can I suggest that you embrace your heritage,” she said. “That will give you a way forward from the anti-social behaviour you have been exposed to for a long period.”

Hawkins should think about moving back to his North Island iwi, she suggested. She was told that he already had an enrolment pack for further studies.

She ordered him to pay $150 reparations for the wallet he took.

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A woman’s car was burnt out in Christchurch’s red zone because her boyfriend was angry with her.

The two men who set fire to the car on Brooker Avenue, Burwood, have now been sentenced in the Christchurch District Court.

Twenty-four-year-old Brayden Clemett was sentenced on charges of arson of the car, dangerous driving, failing to stop for police, driving with sustained loss of traction, unlawfully getting into a car, and breaching community work.

Tyler Keith Smith, 23, was sentenced on a charge of arson of his girlfriend’s car.

Defence counsel for Clemett, Alistair James, said while Clemett had been in custody for eight months he had reflected on his lifestyle and was trying to plan for his future. He had been a victim of bullying and stand-over tactics in prison but did not get into any trouble.

Judge Tom Gilbert said the men had driven to the red zone on November 13 in separate cars.

They doused Smith’s girlfriend’s car with petrol and set it on fire, then both got into the other car and left. Police chased their car, but Clemett refused to stop for them, drove around a residential area in Aranui at up to 100km an hour, through red lights, and drove home. He attempted to run away but was caught by police.

Clemett had 37 prior convictions, and previous home detention sentences.

Letters of support for Clemett said he had had a change of attitude while in custody, and the birth of his son had given him a focus for the future.

Judge Gilbert said he had already served the equivalent of a 16-month sentence in prison.

Clemett had good family support, and Judge Gilbert said he was willing to give him home detention as an opportunity to reintegrate into the community, and get to know his son.

He said that if Clemett went around behaving like a half-wit like he had been doing, he might as well be back in prison. He told him to get on and make a clean start, as he had promised to do.

He sentenced him to five months’ home detention, remitted his fines for earlier offending, and disqualified him from driving for two years.

Paul Johnson, defence counsel for Smith, said Smith was angry at his girlfriend when he set her car on fire, but had completed an anger management course while on bail.

Smith suffered from ADHD, and severe anxiety, he said, but he had family support, and was back in a relationship with the girlfriend.

Judge Gilbert ruled out the home detention address with the girlfriend, and sentenced Smith to 14 months’ prison, with leave to apply for home detention when an appropriate address was found.

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A Redwood man has been charged with nine burglaries and thefts of items including tradesmen’s tools totalling more than $30,000.

Barry Lee Stewart was remanded to July 30, in custody, to appear in the Christchurch District Court by video-link.

The 31-year-old entered no pleas to a total of 18 charges alleging offending from April to June. Nine allege burglaries of properties in Christchurch and Waikuku, in North Canterbury.

He is also charged with stealing power tools, hunting gear, footwear, a wallet, a generator, builders’ tools, a wetsuit, binoculars, a ladder, and sunglasses. The total value of the items is $33,400.

Defence counsel Gerald Lascelles said Stewart was already facing several charges relating to possession of methamphetamine, driving, and a firearm, and no bail application was being made for the latest remand.

He said he hoped that pleas could be entered at the next appearance.

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A family is waiting to find out whether a six-year-old girl will be disfigured by a dog bite she received at a playground in Rangiora.

The dog, a Staffie-American bulldog cross named Vedda, was immediately destroyed after the incident on November 26, at the Good Street Reserve.

The owner, Josh Charles McCracken, a 34-year-old labourer, admitted being the owner of a dog which attacked a person, at the Christchurch District Court.

The Waimakariri District Council prosecuted McCracken under the Dog Control Act. Judge David Saunders was told the Act required the destruction of the dog, but that had already been carried out at McCracken’s instructions.

The council said McCracken was at the park with his children and the dog, which was being encouraged to run around the playground equipment.

The six-year-old was at the playground with her grandmother. Vedda jumped up and bit the girl on the chest area while she was on the flying fox, causing injuries 1cm and 1.5cm long near her right nipple. Her clothing was also ripped.

She was taken to hospital where the wounds were stitched. The doctors say the injuries may eventually cause distortion of the nipple area, and distortion of the growth of the breast.

McCracken had taken the dog to the park to play with the children and was not aware that it should not have been there. The council said he had been very concerned for the victim.

Defence counsel Rupert Ward said it had been very upsetting for the girl and her family. McCracken had been horrified about what had happened, which had been “traumatising for everybody concerned”. McCracken had owned the dog for six years and it had never shown any sign of aggression, he said.

Judge Saunders decided not to fine McCracken, but ordered that he pay $500 in emotional harm reparations to the girl’s family.

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A woman has gone into hiding ahead of the jury trial for the 45-year-old man charged with kidnapping and bashing her and a Christchurch District Court judge has thrown out all the charges.

It was the second attempt to hold a jury trial involving the reluctant witness. She was found and arrested four days after an April trial for Anaru Turei Tamati Rangihuna was due to start, but by then that trial had been abandoned.

She was released on bail, and came to the Court House for a final call-over for the latest trial on July 6.

Since then she has disappeared and intensive police inquiries have not found her. She has charges of her own before the court and did not appear for them this week either. She now has three active warrants out for her arrest.

As soon as Judge Alistair Garland ruled that this week’s trial could not go ahead because the Crown could not present any evidence, 45-year-old Rangihuna turned to the media bench and said, “Put that in the paper, please.”

He gave a thumbs up sign to the reporters in court before he was led back to the cells.

He has been recalled to prison to serve more of an 11-year sentence for methamphetamine dealing charges because he was on parole at the time of the alleged kidnapping.

He has been held under that recall order while awaiting these two trials and will now be considered for release because the charges have been dropped, when he appears before a Parole Board hearing next week.

Judge Garland discharged him, effectively ruling out the 12 charges he was to face at trial: two of kidnapping, two of assaulting a woman, two of assault with intent to injure, threatening to kill, unlawful possession of a piston, two of assault with a weapon, indecent assault, and intentionally injuring her.

Rangihuna had served a six-and-a-half-year term after setting his dog on a man during an attack carried out by three people and then received a 11-year cumulative term for manufacturing and dealing in methamphetamine.

He was released on parole in March 2015.

In October 2016, police issued a statement that he was dangerous and probably had a handgun, after the incident where it was alleged he pointed a gun at the woman’s head after she was kidnapped by two men and brought to his home.

Police said at the time that the woman escaped from a home in Norwich Street, Linwood, by jumping out a window and ran to nearby Eastgate Mall where she struggled with Rangihuna in front of bystanders.

Rangihuna could not be found and was on the run for seven months. He was found and arrested in May 2017, living in rural Canterbury.

At his first court appearance, he turned away from the judge and began talking to a woman in the public seating with a child. The judge had to remind him to pay attention, but he politely apologised to her and said he had not seen his family in months.

Crown prosecutor Shivani Dayal said that when the witness did not turn up at court this week, a warrant was issued and police began making detailed inquiries while the trial was delayed day by day while the search went on.

Police set up surveillance at several addresses she was known to frequent, and they searched several motels on Tuesday night but there was no sign of her. “Her associates have been questioned, without success,” said Miss Dayal.

Defence counsel Rupert Glover said in court on Tuesday that it was quite clear that the woman did not intend to give evidence against Rangihuna even if she could be found, and he suggested the Crown should not waste any more time on the prosecution.

He applied in court today for the charges to be discharged and Judge Garland ruled that they would all be thrown out for “insufficient evidence”.

He said: “It is clear to me that the witness is deliberately avoiding these proceedings. In the circumstances, quite properly today the Crown have indicated that they will offer no evidence against Mr Rangihuna.

“In all the circumstances, it seems appropriate to me and in the interests of justice that Mr Rangihuna be discharged.”

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A Pegasus couple will pay back almost all the half-a-million dollars they have stolen from a disability support trust they were running in Waltham.

Name suppression lifted today when the couple – Cecilia Ann Ellenbroek, 61, and Alfonsus Jozef Maria Ellenbroek, 64 – admitted stealing the money from the Alpha Support Centre Trust between 2010 and 2015.

The Serious Fraud Office which has brought the prosecution is asking for some of money to go to residents of trust during those years, since they did not receive all the support they should have because of the thefts.

Prosecutor Anne Toohey said inquiries had begun to try to assess what those payments should be and who they should go to. The SFO will present that information identifying the victims before the couple are sentenced in October.

Christchurch District Court Judge Gary MacAskill remanded them on continued bail for sentencing on October 25. He asked for pre-sentence reports with assessments of their suitability for home detention.

He did not ask for a report on their ability to pay reparations after defence counsel for Cecilia Ellenbroek, James Rapley, said substantial reparation was going to be paid into the court prior to the sentencing.

Cecilia Ellenbroek admitted six charges of false accounting and six charges of theft by a person in a special relationship, amounting to $494,544.

Alfonsus Ellenbroek admitted six charges of theft by a person in a special relationship, totalling $71,080.

The charges detail how the couple listed personal expenditure as business expenses for the trust which was contracted to receive funding from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Development.

The trust was established in 1998 because there was a shortage of community-based day support services in Christchurch after the psychopaedic units at the Templeton Centre were closed in 1996. Adults deinstitutionalised from Templeton went into community-based support.

Alpha was set up as a charitable trust, to work as a disability service provider, which ceased operation in 2015.

The Ellenbroeks were the trustees. Alfonsus Ellenbroek was the chairman and the operations manager. He oversaw the payroll.

Cecilia Ellenbroek was the effective chief executive officer responsible for the day-to-day management.

The trust operated from permises in Ferry Road, with the aim of providing “quality vocational and recreational services for peoople with an intellectual disability”. It received about a million dollars a year in funding from the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Social Development. It also received donations and funding grants from other sources, which ranged up to $50,000 a year.

The trust operated a credit card account to be used in buying items for the trust. Cecilia Ellenbroek reviewed the monthly statement for the cards and handwrote code next to each purchase indicating which purchases were for the trust and which were personal.

The couple used the cards to buy personal items including travel and accommodation, groceries, cigarettes, alcohol, clothing and accessories, appliances and homewares. Some of the purchases were made in Queenstown where they have a holiday home.

Cecilia Ellenbroek coded these personal expenses as trust expenses:

• More than $120,000 for personal accommodation at a beachfront condo in Waikiki Beach, Honolulu.
• About $21,000 towards sightseeing trips for them and their intellectually disabled son to San Diego, New York, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, including flights, accommodation, meals, and entertainment.
• Kitchen and laundry appliances valued at more than $14,000.
• Diamond earrings valued at $3999.
• Flights and New Zealand concert tickets for Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Jason Derulo, and Bruno Mars.
• Grocery purchases made with the credit card exceeded the grocery requirements of the trust.

Cecilia Ellenbroek constantly impressed on the trust’s staff that there was a need to economise. She asked staff to keep heating off during winter until the clients had arrived, limit outings to save on petrol costs, refrain from using new art and crafts items, and reduced baking sessions.

Miss Toohey said: “The staff of Alpha saw a noticeable decline in the standard of service offered to Alpha’s clients from 2010 to 2015, which was directly related to a shortage of funding.

“One staff member ultimately felt compelled to resign as she was unable to provide the level of care that was required with the resources available.”

Cecilia Ellenbroek had specifically targeted high needs clients to secure more funing, but these clients required significant staff oversight. “The most significant impact of the funding shortage was the inability to pay and retain sufficient staff,” said Miss Toohey.

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After barricading them both in a bedroom, a man threatened to set a woman alight with petrol he had brought and slit her throat.

Paul Dumelow, 51, told his victim he was not leaving her bedroom alive, and she probably wasn’t going to either.

He admitted charges of kidnapping and threatening to kill the woman, and the aggravated burglary of her house.

At his Christchurch District Court appearance, he also pleaded guilty to a charge of the aggravated assault of a police officer at the address in Christchurch.

Crown prosecutor Pip Currie said Dumelow arrived at the woman’s address on February 11, 2017, and parked in the driveway. He grabbed a bag containing a hammer, cable ties, a craft knife, a plastic drink bottle filled with petrol, and a bottle of wine.

He kicked a side gate open and yelled at the victim,“I’ve come to finish this”.

He entered the house and demanded the woman go upstairs with him to her bedroom, and when she refused he grabbed her right upper arm, and forced her up the stairs. She yelled at her son to phone the police.

Dumelow pushed a large set of drawers over the door of the bedroom, preventing the woman from getting away and stopping anyone getting in to help.

He told the woman to stop crying and said, “I’ll pour petrol on you now and light you on fire”.

Dumelow got the knife from his bag and held it near her throat saying he was going to slit it, and started drinking from the bottle of wine.

He told the woman: “I’m ending this here, I’m not leaving this room alive and you’re probably not either”.

While Dumelow was getting items out of his bag the woman managed to call her sister on her cellphone and yelled for help. He grabbed the phone from her and smashed it with the hammer.

A police officer arrived and tried to open the bedroom door. He yelled at Dumelow to let him in, and could hear the victim screaming. He kicked the door and as it began to break apart he could see in the room.

The victim tried to climb out the bedroom window, but Dumelow moved towards her with the knife. She jumped over the bed and tried to move the drawers and gave enough access for the police officer to taser Dumelow who was attempting the hit him with the wine bottle.

Judge Raoul Neave remanded Dumelow in custody for sentencing on October 2, and referred the case for a possible restorative justice meeting.

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Armed robbers got away with $1150 of tobacco in a dairy robbery at Springston that may have lasted less than a minute.

The group’s lookout, 20-year-old Matthew Hoffman, of Springston, pleaded guilty to the armed robbery charge in the Christchurch District Court yesterday.

Judge David Ruth granted bail and remanded him for sentencing with the co-offenders on October 3.

He asked for a pre-sentence report to assess Hoffman’s suitability for a home detention sentence, an alcohol and drug assessment, and referred the case for a possible restorative justice meeting where the robbers could meet their victim and apologise.

The robbery took place at 6pm on June 30. Police say the four men involved had met during the week and discussed robbing the Springston Dairy of cigarettes and cash.

Hoffman was to be the lookout, another the getaway driver, and two were to go into the dairy. The two went inside heavily disguised and one approached the counter holding a small, folding knife.

The lone woman working in the shop realised what was happening and stepped away from the counter. The two men then filled bags they had brought with 17 pouches of tobacco worth about $1150.

Police said that apart from presenting the knife, no threats were made. After about 45 seconds, the pair left the shop.

Police inquiries over the next day located the four. Hoffman said he had agreed to help as the lookout. Two of the others referred to being “under financial pressure” and short of money.

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Murray James Allan says his efforts to leave the Tribesmen gang put him in hospital for two weeks.

He told Judge Jane Farish today that he took his “outing” from the gang when he was released from prison. The outing was a hiding that put him in hospital.

He is now back in custody facing sentencing in September on a list of charges and he remains keen to break his years of the gang connections which have led to the 25-year-old spending most of his adulthood in prison.

He wants to move to Nelson when he is sentenced – Judge Farish has told him he will most likely get a “restrictive rehabilitative sentence”.

She has ordered a drug and alcohol assessment while he is in custody awaiting sentencing, and hopes that there will be programmes available in Nelson to help him break his methamphetamine habit.

His defence counsel Serina Bailey said: “Rehabilitation is crucial. He has got some (criminal) history and a long term drug habit.”

Being in Christchurch meant constant contact with the Tribesmen, and being sent to prison meant he was put straight into a unit with them, Allan told the Christchurch District Court.

Allan had a two-day judge-alone trial this week and was acquitted on two of the three charges. However, he had pleaded guilty to other charges at various stages and now faces sentencing on September 28 on a total of nine charges.

They are unlawful possession of a sawn-off pump-action shotgun, possession of a meth pipe, and a restricted weapon – pepper spray, as well as breach of his sex offender registration rules, breach of prison release conditions, dishonestly taking a car, possession of cannabis and methamphetamine, and unlawful possession of ammunition.

Some of the charges arose from an incident where he cut off his electronic bracelet and went on the run from electronically monitored bail.

Allen gave evidence at the trial, trying his best to explain the boot full of fresh burglary loot and a sawn-off shotgun which the police found when they stopped his car.

Allan has had a very bad time with police stops. In February 2017, he pulled out an imitation pistol and was shot in the face by police. He got 18 months in jail after that incident.

Then, after his release from prison, after he took back his car which had been taken by someone while he was in prison, the car was reported stolen and a police stop found the boot full of laptops and other items taken in a burglary only hours before.

Allan expressed shock and surprise at how it all got there, when he was interviewed by the police. The DVD recording of that interview was played at the trial.

He was less shocked about it when he gave evidence in his defence. He said a man named Nana had asked to put bags in the boot when he picked him up from Parklands Mall.

He had no idea what was in the bags, but didn’t want to admit to the police that he knew about them, in case Nana had drug paraphernalia in there. He didn’t know Nana’s last name, nor much else about him, though he had let him drive his other car. Nana had got out of the BMW just before the police stop, and got in another car with his cousin – they were all meant to be going to the same place.

Allan told the court: “I’m not a burglar.”

The police fingerprinted the burglary items and the shotgun but found no prints. “Burglars these days usually wear gloves,” the officer in charge of the case, Constable Chris Earl, explained to the court.

Allan admitted charges of unlawful possession of a pepperspray canister and a meth pipe found in the car, but denied any knowledge of an extendable baton, saying it must have belonged to one of his passengers. He also denied knowing about the shotgun in the boot.

Crown prosecutor Will Taffs called evidence that Allan had taken back his car early on December 15, 2017, the same day as a daylight burglary at a property in Main North Road where laptops, a camera, clothes, and shoes were taken.

Allan originally said no-one else had driven the car after he got it, but then he said he had taken it back from a driveway in Woolston the previous day and other people had access to it in the meantime while it was “parked up”. He also told about Nana putting his bags in the boot.

He also explained that he had a history of driving off from police stops and getting into pursuits, and if he had known what was in the boot he would not have stopped that night.

He told the court: “It is quite a fast car. I would have had no trouble getting away. I have quite a few previous convictions for failing to stop.”

Judge Farish said the police had not excluded that the baton could have belonged to one of the passengers in the car – it was found next to one of them – and because other people had access to the car and the boot, she was not satisfied that Allan was one of the burglars. She dismissed those charges, saying it was more likely he was an accessory to the burglary.

However, she believed it was most likely that the shotgun in the boot was “in his possession” and was put there while he had the car. She convicted him of that charge.

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The Department of Conservation is ruling out diversion for people caught fishing illegally in marine reserves because it believes offenders are not getting the message.

Diversion has been granted to some illegal fishers but prosecutor Susan Newell has signalled in the Christchurch District Court that the procedure which allows people to avoid a conviction may have to end.

She told Judge Tom Gilbert: “A large number of offenders have been diverted, but the offending only seems to be increasing. Deterrence is required.”

Before the court were two Canterbury real estate agents, Dougal Boyd, 58, of West Melton, and Benjamin Rhys Donaldson, 30, of St Albans, who admitted taking crayfish in the Pohatu Marine Reserve, Akaroa.

Judge Gilbert received the guilty pleas but did not enter convictions. Defence counsel for both men, Jonathan Eaton QC, asked for a remand for a hearing on whether they should be discharged without convictions for their “genuine mistake”.

That hearing will take place on November 23.

Mr Eaton said the pair did not pay enough attention to the signs at the jetty marking where the marine reserve was, when they launched to dive for crayfish. The pair had surfaced and saw the fisheries officers, and then co-operated fully.

“They were shocked, amazed, and surprised to find that they were in a marine reserve,” he said. The rock lobsters were all returned to the water alive and no harm had been caused.

The men had been “embarassed and ashamed” and had offered to support the Conservation Department with education programmes or donations, but diversion had been refused.

Ms Newell said all forms of fishing were prohibited in the reserve. She said the pair were on a 6m boat at Dyke Head, well within the reserve on December 5, intending to collect seafood for an office break-up party.

At 10.10am, a fisheries officer found the vessel anchored about 500m inside the reserve boundary. The officer found them with nine crayfish in a bin, three of which were undersized. The men said they had not yet measured their catch and would have returned the undersized crayfish to the sea.

The men have no previous convictions. One has a family bach in the area and the other grew up nearby.

DOC has seized their diving gear but has agreed to return it rather than seek forfeiture.

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Rapper and hip-hop artist Scribe – real name Malo Ioane Luafutu – has denied six charges and is taking the case to a judge-alone trial.

The 39-year-old entered the not guilty pleas before Judge Brian Callaghan in the Christchurch District Court today.

The charges were described at a previous hearing as being “of a domestic nature”. Luafutu originally appeared on them in the Waitakere District Court in Auckland earlier this month, and they were then transferred to Christchurch.

Defence counsel Elizabeth Bulger said today he admitted one charge of wilful damage but denied four charges of breaching a protection order, assault on a woman, and assault with intent to injure.

Judge Callaghan remanded him on continued bail for a case review hearing for a judge-alone trial on September 27. The wilful damage charge is following along, with the other charges.

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A robbery of a cannabis tinny house where a man was accidentally shot in the neck has led to a sentence of more than nine years in prison.

Rory Manuel, 34, and a co-offender went to the house on December 29, 2016, and forced their way in.

They told the occupants, who had dealt in cannabis from the house that evening, that they wanted “money, drugs, and valuables”.

They told a woman at the address to stay in the kitchen and placed a blanket over her head. Two men at the address were told to sit in the lounge.

The offenders ransacked the bedroom, and Manuel’s fingerprint was later found there by police.

When the offenders went back in the lounge, they lifted the couch and a loaded firearm accidentally went off, hitting one of the occupants in the neck.

In the Christchurch District Court yesterday Judge Jane Farish said she was sentencing Manuel on a charge of aggravated robbery after the jury at his trial found him guilty.

She said the victim had significant injuries, lost a lot of blood, and was lucky to survive the wound.

The invasion was premeditated and the two men were armed. It was a home invasion with forced entry, and then an accidental shooting, she said.

“What happened in the house was unintended, but there was always the risk the loaded firearm would go off accidentally, rather than intentionally.”

The victims all declined to give a victim impact report to the court, she said.

Judge Farish said Manuel had a significant history with stints of prison for methamphetamine offending.

She found Manuel pleasant, respectful in the court, and he had a partner and a young child.

He was sentenced to nine years four months’ jail, but Judge Farish did not impose a minimum period of imprisonment.

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A Redwood man has admitted a three-month crime spree across Christchurch and North Canterbury in which goods worth $132,160 were stolen.

Tradies’ tools make up much of the gear taken by Barry Lee Stewart, 31, in burglaries and thefts from April to June in Christchurch’s northern suburbs of Belfast and Redwood, and the North Canterbury towns of Kaiapoi and Waikuku.

He has been held in custody since his arrest while the charges mounted up against him.

Another new charge – receiving a stolen $3500 mountain bike – was laid yesterday before he pleaded guilty to 35 charges before Judge Stephen O’Driscoll in the Christchurch District Court.

Police are completing details of four more charges which will be put to Stewart for pleas next week.

Judge O’Driscoll remanded him in custody for sentencing on September 18.

He ordered a report on the amount of the losses and Stewart’s ability to pay for them, and referred the case for a possible restorative justice meeting between the offender and his long list of victims.

Judge O’Driscoll also asked for a pre-sentence report to be prepared but ruled out any possibility of a home detention sentence by declining to order the necessary assessment.

Stewart pleaded guilty to 13 thefts, 10 burglaries, receiving stolen property, unlawful possession of a firearm, failing to stop for the police, reckless driving, two charges of unlawful possession of a knife in public, possession of a pipe for smoking methamphetamine, possession of tools for taking car, breach of community work, and three breaches of his bail.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Kathy Pomfrett said police had noticed a spike in the number of house burglaries and tradesmen’s vehicles being broken into in northern Christchurch and Kaiapoi and Waikuku. The police set up the Operation Belfast investigation in response.

She said the burglaries were occurring during the day and night, and were targeting high end electrical items and valuable household goods.

Trademen’s vehicles were being targeted for power tools and trade items. Vehicles were being raided while they were parked in driveways or on the road.

The police eventually targeted Stewart, a beneficiary, with warrants under the Search and Surveillance Act. They found items related to the thefts and burglaries at his home, in his car, at an address associated with him, and at a motor camp where he had been staying.

Police are still working out the value of the property which has not been found.

Stewart declined to make any statement when he was caught.

He had also been caught in May after a high-speed chase through the Marshland area, late afternoon on June 22 when traffic was heavy and congested.

He drove on the wrong side of the road causing drivers to take evasive action.

Police found a firearm in the car, as well as a knife, and a meth pipe.

Sergeant Pomfrett said he told police he had fled because he thought he was wanted.

Gerald Lascelles appeared as defence counsel for Stewart.

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Gasps came from the public gallery as a man charged over a police pursuit that ended with a pile-up in Cranford Street appeared injured and bandaged on a video-link in the Christchurch District Court today.

“Holy sh–! What happened there?” a woman called out from the public seats as 37-year-old Dawson Reihana came on screen.

He had injuries and plasters on his face, and probably a black eye.

Community Magistrate Leigh Langridge asked if he had seen a doctor, and Reihana said he had seen one since he had been brought to the cells.

Reihana was the victim of a Mongrel Mob bashing and kidnapping in 2015, which went to trial in the High Court in Christchurch the following year and resulted in several mob members or associates being given long jail terms.

The police pursuit on Cranford Street took place in heavy traffic about 4pm. A patrol car blocked the vehicle and other police cars blocked it in behind. Three police vehicles were hit. Traffic was diverted as the damaged vehicles were cleared.

Police alleged that after the vehicle was stopped, the driver reached over his back seat before he was tasered.

Community Magistrate Langridge remanded Reihana in custody to tomorrow for the police to check a proposed bail address before he makes an application for release.

She noted that he had several supporters in the public gallery and urged them to support him to find a suitable bail address. She also invited Reihana to wave to the supporters before the video-link was shut down, and he gave them a smile and a wave.

He has entered no pleas to charges of driving while forbidden, failing to stop for the police, reckless driving on Barbadoes Street, failing to stop after a non-injury accident, assaulting a police sergeant and another person using a car as a weapon, resisting a police officer, and being found in unlawful possession of .22 rounds and knuckledusters in Cranford Street.

He has entered no pleas to any of the charges.

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Three men have been charged with kidnapping and robbery over an incident in Christchurch early on Tuesday.

They are jointly charged with kidnapping a man, and robbing him of a car, a bank card, cellphone, and a set of keys. No pleas have been entered.

Cruz Richmond, 27, of Upper Riccarton, was remanded without plea to Thursday by Community Magistrate Langridge so that the police could check a potential bail address.

Chad Ian Taylor, 27, of Phillipstown, applied for bail before Judge Bill Hastings at a separate hearing but bail was refused. He was remanded in custody for an application for release on electronically monitored bail to be heard on August 20.

Jonathan Rex Voice, 26, of no fixed abode in central Christchurch, made no bail application because no approved address was available. He was remanded in custody to August 9 when defence counsel Sunny Teki-Clark said a bail application would be made.

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A 19-year-old streaker who disrupted the Crusaders semi-final match on Saturday night says he did it to honour a friend who had died.

Jayden Shawn Nicholl, an asphalter from Addington, was today fined $300 in the Christchurch District Court by Judge David Ruth after admitting a charge of intentionally and obscenely exposing his genitals at AMI Stadium.

Nicholl posted a photo of the streak on his Facebook page.

The police said the incident happened at 9pm during the semi-final match between the Crusaders and the Hurricanes, which had 15,000 spectators.

Nicholl had drunk one bottle of alcohol before he took off his clothes and launched himself from the Take a Kid to Footie stand. The police said there were families with young children present.

Nicholl ran onto the field and covered the length of the ground before security nabbed him. The match could not continue while he was on the field.

He told police afterwards that he had done it to honour a friend who had passed away, Judge Ruth was told.

Defence counsel David Dickson said Nicholl had been trespassed from AMI Stadium for two years, which was part of his penalty.

Nicholl had $5500 in unpaid fines which he was paying off at $55 a week, Mr Dickson said.

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An unlicensed builder has been ordered to do 11 months’ home detention for using forged documents relating to Christchurch building consents.

Judge David Ruth imposed the sentence in the Christchurch District Court today, after guilty pleas in May to four charges from Travis Jansen, of Old School Builders (Christchurch) Ltd.

Old School Builders was removed from the Companies Register on June 20, 2017.

Judge Ruth imposed the home detention on charges of using a forged document, and using a forged document to get a financial advantage. He convicted and discharged Jansen on charges of carrying out restricted building work when he was not licensed, and doing work without a building consent.

When he was charged, Jansen lived in Rolleston. When he pleaded guilty in May, the court was told that he was living in Masterton and working in Wanganui.

The Christchurch City Council said the charges related to work done on a couple’s Riccarton property.

Jansen told the property owners that the council was “a pain to deal with”. When one of the owners said she wanted the process to be undertaken properly, Jansen said he had a friend in the council who could help in having the necessary consents processed quickly.

The house owners engaged him to renovate their kitchen, remove an internal wall, and install a beam into the roof of their house.

The owners received a bill which included $1436 for “council costs”, referring to the acquisition of the building consent. Jansen showed the owners the building consent documents which were on Christchurch City Council letterhead.

No building consent had been applied for or issued. The invoice was paid in full.

Another $15,000 invoice for the building work was also paid in May 2017.

The work was then done on the house. A building consent was required, but none had been applied for or issued. Jansen was not a licensed builder and was not under the supervision of a practitioner with a licence.

In June 2017, he told the owners that a council inspector had been on site for an hour-and-a-half and the building had passed the inspection.

That same night, the owners noticed problems with the gib board Jansen had installed. They asked him to redo that work, but there was no response.

Three days later, the owner said her father would complete the rest of the work and asked Jansen to send an itemised list of materials and labour so that she could organise a refund for the remaining work. Jansen sent this through, but said he was still owed $3239.

He emailed through a Code of Compliance Certificate, but it was forged and had not been issued by the council.

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Police found a cellphone with an open text message inside a car involved in a head-on crash that killed a motorcyclist on Queen Elizabeth II Drive.

The phone was found in the passenger side footwell of Judy Rita McGirr’s car after the crash on February 9 in which Tyrone Tiatoa was killed.

When she spoke to the police, McGirr denied being distracted and said she thought the motorcycle had come into her lane and she was taking evasive action to avoid hitting it.

However, today the 62-year-old teacher aide admitted a charge of careless driving causing death and Christchurch District Court Judge Brian Callaghan remanded her for sentencing on September 20.

He asked for a pre-sentence report to be prepared and asked for the case to be assessed for a possible restorative justice meeting with the victim’s family. He said a report on her ability to pay reparations may be required.

Defence counsel Trudi Aickin said interim suppression granted at her first appearance last month was being abandoned.

Police said McGirr left a function in Avondale, driving her car, between 9pm and 9.10pm. At 9.02pm she sent a text message and received a text in reply at 9.06pm.

As she drove west on Queen Elizabeth II Drive, Mr Tiatoa was riding towards her in the east bound lane on the 80km an hour road.

Near Marshlands Road, McGirr drifted into the east bound lane, until she was completely within the lane.

As he rode towards her, Mr Tiatoa tried to take evasive action but lost control of his motorcycle which slid into the front of McGirr’s car. The rider’s helmet was dislodged and slid underneath the car.

Police said the crash occurred well within the east bound lane where the motorcycle was driving.

The rider received a non-survivable transected aorta and a spinal column injury. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Soon after the collision, McGirr’s phone was found in the passenger side footwell of the car, showing the open message sent at 9.06pm.

Police said McGirr had no previous convictions.

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