A man who seriously assaulted both a work-mate and his partner in separate incidents, pleaded guilty to two charges of intentionally injuring his victims, at the Christchurch District Court.

Tumahana John Ponga, a 45-year-old fencer from Malvern Hills in Selwyn District, went to an address in Rolleston in November to confront his work-mate, and punched him twice in the face.

The men went outside and he punched him again in the face, and pushed his head into the outside wall of the house.

He used his elbows and fists to hit the man, and told him to get into his car and they both left the address.

Ponga assaulted the man again, and left him at the Hororata Domain.

When the police found the 20-year-old the next day he had significant swelling to his right eye and bruising to both cheeks. He was taken to Christchurch Hospital for scans and x-rays and suffered a displaced right nasal bone fracture.

When Ponga was told by police the man had serious injuries he told them, “My mother used to hit me harder than that.”

In March 2018, Ponga was at a party with his partner. Ponga got into an argument with another party goer and his partner pulled him away.

Ponga put a hand around his partner’s neck and squeezed tightly, telling her to stay out of it.

They left the party, but as she drove they were arguing, then he grabbed her hair and punched her in the left jaw.

She lost control of the car, which struck road cones and came to a stop. She was assisted by a passer-by.

She suffered bruising and scratches to her neck, and her jaw was fractured in two places requiring surgery and the insertion of five plates.

Ponga told police she must have been hurt when she crashed the car.

Judge Jane Farish remanded Ponga in custody for sentencing on November 29. She referred the case for possible restorative justice meetings, and asked for victim impact reports to be prepared for the sentencing. She also ordered a pre-sentence report.

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Five women will give evidence alleging child sex abuse by a 51-year-old man who has gone on trial in the Christchurch District Court.

The man faces 33 charges – many of them “representative” alleging repeated offending – in the eight day trial before Judge Alistair Garland and a jury.

Judge Garland has suppressed the name of the man and the locations where the offending occurred.

Crown prosecutor Mark Zarifeh told the jury the offending began with touching but moved on to other sexual acts involving urination, oral sex, masturbation, and rape.

The five girls are now teenagers or adults, but offending is alleged against them when they were aged from four to 14 years.

The charges include indecent assaults, indecent acts, sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, and rape.

The five alleged victims have given testimony in video interviews which will be played to the trial. They will also give evidence, some by video-link from outside the courtroom and others from behind a screen in the witness box.

Mr Zarifeh told the jury the man had gone overseas for six years after changing his name and getting a passport after the police investigation began. He was returned to New Zealand after being convicted of possessing child exploitation material.

The Crown will call evidence from 16 witnesses.

Defence counsel Peter Kaye told the jury: “The issue is to be whether any of these acts of child indecency were done by this man.”

He asked the jury to consider issues of truthfulness and reliability of witnesses as it heard the evidence.

The trial is continuing.

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A teenager who once plotted an ISIS-style terrorist attack in Christchurch has now clocked up his first 12 NCEA credits.

The 19-year-old has been studying while doing two years of supervision in monitored accommodation, and his progress was reported to the sentencing Judge Stephen O’Driscoll at one of his regular monitoring sessions at the Christchurch District Court today.

The judge has been seeing him monthly to check on the youth since he was sentenced in February. His name is suppressed to help with his rehabilitation.

Each month, the teenager has written a report for the judge and read it out in court. These have described progress with his counselling during mosque visits, his first game of golf, and household activities.

He did not read out his report today, but Judge O’Driscoll read it and said he was pleased with it. “I want you to continue making the progress you are making,” he said.

“The highlight of this month is that you have achieved your first ever NCEA credits. You are incredibly proud of that achievement, and rightly so. Nothing would give me more pleasure than to see you ending up getting your NCEA and having a qualification that can be with you for the rest of your life.”

The youth said he had gained 12 credits. Judge O’Driscoll said he needed to get 80 credits to get his NCEA level 1.

Probation, which is also monitoring the supervision sentence, reported that a departmental psychologist found the youth was increasingly engaging and was “showing more balance in his thinking in general”.

The teenager was showing “adult maturity” in new accommodation shared with a resident who had his own difficulties, probation said.

Last year, the youth had been radicalised online and planned a terrorist attack “for Allah”. He planned to ram a car into a group of people and then stab them until the police killed him. He went through with a threatening and violent incident but “decided not to hurt anybody because he did not have the means to kill enough people”, the Crown reported when he pleaded guilty.

Judge O’Driscoll will see him for another monitoring session on September 14.

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A 34-year-old repeat offender has been jailed for 25 months for having nearly 30,000 child sex abuse videos and images on his computer system.

Corey Andrew Challis, from Wainoni, acquired and stored images depicting the sexual abuse and exploitation of girls as young as five, and video clip files of girls as young as eight undressing and performing sexual acts.

The images were obtained between October 2016 and March 2017 and were found stored on a laptop computer and external hard drive. The Department of Internal Affairs said 29,380 files were found.

Defence counsel Kerry Cook said Challis would be put on the child sex offender register when he was released from prison.

He said Challis took his rehabilitation programmes seriously, and had been undergoing psychological counselling at his own expense.

Judge Stephen O’Driscoll said he was sentencing Challis on two representative charges of possession of objectionable publications.

He said the age and vulnerability of the abused and exploited children were taken into account for sentencing.

Challis had made therapeutic gains over the 14 months he had been on bail, but he had a previous similar conviction in 2009, he said.

Challis had been viewing objectionable material for a long time, and had put himself in a high risk situation by spending many hours a day using the computer.

Judge O’Driscoll denied a media application for an in-court photograph of Challis after reading a report from Challis’s psychologist.

He sentenced Challis to 25 months prison, and ordered the material be destroyed, and forfeiture of the laptop and external hard drive Challis used.

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An Auckland woman who has admitted her role in falsifying wine export applications is opposing suppression for the five wineries involved.

The wineries were granted interim suppression today but the issue will have to be argued at the sentencing in December.

Counsel for the five wineries, Nic Soper of Queenstown, said he was surprised by the defendant’s opposition to the suppression order. He said the defence seemed to think, “If his client’s going down he wants to drag as many people down as he can.”

The woman’s defence counsel, Andrew Riches, denied that. He said there had been “co-operation” between the woman and the wineries involved, and the summary of facts said both parties had benefitted from the filing of the false wine export applications.

Mr Soper said he understood that no prosecution of the wineries was being considered at present.

Joyce Mary Frances Austin, 55, of Kohimarama, pleaded guilty to one representative charge in the Christchurch District Court today.

She was remanded at large – no bail was required – for sentencing in the Auckland District Court on December 21.

Judge John Brandts-Giesen did not enter a conviction because Mr Riches said he would seek a discharge without conviction for Austin.

Austin has admitted a charge of “procuring others to make false applications” with intent to deceive, for the purpose of obtaining a benefit.

The charge under the Wine Act 2003 has been brought by the Ministry for Primary Industries.

Prosecutor Grant Fletcher said Austin had procured staff in five wineries to make 13 Wine Export Applications that listed for export 44.5 cases of wine under the names of varieties and vintages that had Export Eligibility Approval.

In fact, those listed cases of wine were not the wines that Austin’s company, New Zealand Boutique Wines Ltd, was exporting.

Mr Fletcher said the duties imposed on wine exporters sought to facilitate entry into overseas markets through control mechanisms and safeguard the New Zealand wine industry’s market reputation.

He said Austin was the sole director and employee of New Zealand Boutique Wines, which began operations in 2002, predominantly exporting New Zealand wines and beer to Ireland, which has been a European Union member country since 1973.

MPI alleges the offences took place between March 2013 and May 2014. Austin exported just under 3500 cases of wine during that period, and procured the submission of false wine export applications for 44.5 cases of wine.

Most of the 44.5 cases were not sold for a profit once exported, but were used as samples at sales events and for promotional purposes in Ireland.

The net profit to New Zealand Boutique Wines from the wine referred to in the charges, if they had been sold at retail value, was under $1450.

The prosecution is the first one of its kind under the Wine Act and the court was told the case was being closely watched. Written submissions will be filed ahead of the sentencing.

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A Riccarton dairy owner has taken two big financial hits in two months – one from a robbery by three young men, and now fines for selling tobacco to an underage girl in a sting operation.

The Riccarton Convenience Store’s losses in that period now total $4630, with owner Hou Keet Lye’s conviction under the Smokefree Environments Act.

Lye’s defence counsel, Peter Dyhrberg, said the cost of insurance against robberies was now so high – $3000 a year – that he had chosen not to have insurance any more.

He lost $3000 when three young males went into the shop two months ago. Mr Dyhrberg said one aged 14 had appeared in the Youth Court but Lye had no information about the others.

Lye was prosecuted by the Ministry of Health for the tobacco sales breach, and pleaded guilty in the Christchurch District Court.

Prosecutor Sophia Bicknell Young said the “controlled purchase operation” was carried out on January 26 in the Christchurch area to find out if stores were complying with the Act.

At 10.04am, a 16-year-old volunteer went into the Riccarton store and asked at the counter for a packet of Holiday 20 Blue cigarettes.

Lye served her, and did not ask for identification nr ask her age. He took $30, gave her $2.10 in change, and handed the cigarettes over the counter.

The volunteer then returned to ministry officials in a car outside and filled out an incident form.

When they approached Lye, he said he had served her because he was busy but they pointed out there was no-one else in the shop at the time. He then acknowledged he had been “a bit slack” and it had not crossed his mind.

He knew his obligations under the Act about not selling to people under 18, and had previously rejected people without identification.

Mr Dyhrberg said Lye was aged 50. He had emigrated to New Zealand three-and-a-half years ago with his wife and two sons, and he was a permanent resident. The shop was open for long hours each day, and Lye was there most of the time. His wife helped to run the shop.

Lye knew his responsibilities and there would be “heightened vigilance” from now on, he said.

Judge John Brandts-Giesen said: “I appreciate you have only been living in New Zealand for three-and-a-half years and you are trying to make a living and doing your best to stay within the law.

“On this occasion, you have been extremely sloppy, at the very least. The law is the law and you need to comply with it.

“I note you have been the subject of a robbery. Most robberies of dairies are related to cigarettes and clearly that is where a substantial part of the profit of dairies comes from.”

He fined Lye $1000, and orered him to pay $130 court costs, and solicitor’s fees of $500 to the Ministry of Health.

Under the Act, individuals face fines of up to $5000, businesses $10,000, and if there are two convictions within two years, the business can be prohibited from selling tobacco products for three months.

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A woman who stabbed her partner in the chest told police she was frustrated that her attempt to kill him had failed.

The knife that 59-year-old Virginia Maria Beerens plunged into the man’s chest narrowly missed the heart.

She pleaded guilty in the High Court at Christchurch today to a charge of attempted murder. The Crown then dropped an arson charge.

Justice Cameron Mander remanded her in custody for sentencing on October 24, and ordered a pre-sentence report and a victim impact statement. He also referred the case for a possible restorative justice meeting between Beerens and the victim.

Beerens thanked the judge as she was led back to the cells.

Crown prosecutor Chris Lange said Beerens had been in a relationship with the victim since late 2015 but they had separated in mid-2017. They rekindled the relationship in early 2018 but Beerens became jealous about the man seeing another woman.

On the morning of January 22, Beerens was drunk and decided to kill the man.

She travelled from her home in Halswell to the man’s workplace to see whether he was at work, and when she saw his car there, she drove to his home in Riccarton.

The man’s flatmates knew her from her earlier relationship with him and let him inside, where she went to his bedroom.

She chose personal items that were precious to him – notes and gifts from the other woman he was seeing – and put them in the centre of his bed. She then set them alight using a cigarette lighter, and stood and watched while the fire took hold. “She wanted to destroy all his belongings,” said Mr Lange.

Beerens also took a black flick knife which she knew was precious to the victim. She knew he regularly sharpened it.

She then drove past his workplace again and noticed his car had gone, so she knew he had been told about the fire and had gone home.

She parked her car in a vacant lot next to his house and walked onto the property where firefighters were putting out the fire.

Beerens approached the man near the front door, holding the knife.

They spoke at the front door and then Beerens clicked open the blade and drove the knife into his chest as far as the blade would go. She then pulled out the knife and dropped it into a garden nearby.

The man dropped to the ground, clutching his chest and bleeding heavily, Mr Lange said.

Firefighters restrained Beerens until the police arrived.

“The wound narrowly missed the victim’s heart. The victim was admitted to Christchurch Hospital in a critical conditions and underwent surgery for his injuries,” Mr Lange said.

When police spoke to Beerens, she admitted what had happened and expressed her frustration that she had failed in her attempt to kill the man. However, she refused to say why she wanted to kill him.

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A 39-year-old man faces a $3009 damage bill after skidding donuts round the Hornby Rugby League Club’s Leslie Park and ripping up the playing surface.

Graeme Thomas was remanded on bail for sentence after admitting drink-driving, driving with a sustained loss of traction, wilful damage, and failing to stop for the police at the Christchurch District Court yesterday.

Judge Gary MacAskill remanded him for a pre-sentence report after noting that  the breath-alcohol level – measured at 1027mcg to a litre of breath – was so high, and he had committed the drink-driving offence at least twice before.

The case may be referred for a restorative justice meeting with the club which had its field damaged.

Police said Thomas drove a vehicle through a steel rope barrier at 11.50pm on July 5, at the park on the corner of the Main SouthRoad and Halswell Junction Road.

He drove around for several minutes ripping up the grass. Police told the court that repairing the damage had cost $3009 and they are seeking reparations from Thomas.

He will be sentenced on November 14.

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File image. © Andrew Bardwell

A member of the group scamming elderly victims two years ago has now begun a fresh jail term for organised shoplifting and bank card frauds.

Henry Edward Halliday’s criminal history counted against him at his latest sentencing – Christchurch District Court Judge Tony Couch added on extra jail time.

Halliday, a 38-year-old caregiver from Wainoni, has a history of dishonesty. He was jailed for two years two months in 2016 when he was part of a group that scammed elderly victims out of their bank cards and PIN numbers and then raided their accounts.

Among his victims for that offending was a 94-year-old woman. Halliday and the gang cleaned $20,000 out of her bank account after getting her bank card. They would phone victims to say there was a problem with their bank cards and then call around and “exchange” them for a new card – actually a pressie card.

Halliday served his time for that and was released on parole on January 16 this year.

Soon after his release, a drug test indicated he had used methamphetamine and cannabis, in breach of his parole conditions.

He also fell in with a gang of organised shoplifters which targeted Christchurch stores, sometimes with five offenders operating together. They stole thousands of dollars of goods that included health and beauty products, perfume, and meat.

Halliday also admitted receiving four credit cards soon after they were stolen in house burglaries. He would then go on a flurry of activity, using each card multiple times to get items using the pay-wave system that does not require identification, a signature, nor a pin number.

By the time his offending came to an end with his arrest and remand in custody, he had clocked up 37 charges: 24 charges of dishonestly using or attempting to use the bank cards, four of receiving the stolen cards, eight thefts, and the breach of parole. He pleaded guilty to all of them.

Defence counsel Craig Ruane said Halliday clearly had a problem with alcohol and drugs and unfortunately he might continue offending until he was motivated to deal with the issue.

Judge Tony Couch said the shoplifting was serious offending – organised and premeditated. He noted that the dishonesty occurred while Halliday was on parole, and on bail.

He jailed him for two years five months, and ordered him to pay his share of reparations, $891, although he said there was no realistic prospect of it being paid in the near future.

A second person involved in the organised shoplifting ring, Bishopdale woman Tina Katrina Tongia, 32, an invalid’s beneficiary, was ordered to do 160 hours of community work when she appeared for sentence on five shoplifting charges involving goods worth about $4000. She had also pleaded guilty.

Judge Couch also ordered to pay her share of the reparations, $1603.

Other members of the group have been dealt with separately, or in the Youth Court.

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A woman who shoplifted a swimming pool has admitted 24 charges and is due for sentencing in November in the Christchurch District Court.

Donna Reta Mareraki, 33, pleaded guilty to two months of stealing from Canterbury stores when she appeared before Judge Tom Gilbert.

The total value of her thefts is still being settled, but the police figure for unrecovered items at present is $23,777.

The judge remanded her on bail for sentencing on November 9, and ordered a pre-sentence report which will consider Mareraki’s suitability for a home detention sentence.

He also referred the case for possible restorative justice meetings with the stores who were victims, where she will have a chance to apologise. That has meant a change to Mareraki’s bail, because at present she has a bail condition stopping her contacting any of the stores or going to them.

She admitted 16 theft charges, five of receiving stolen items, two assaults, and resisting arrest.

Police said she was with another offender on January 6, when they went to The Warehouse at Eastgate and loaded a garden swimming pool worth $932 onto a sack barrow. While the other offender distracted staff, Mareraki wheeled the pool out of the shop. The pair then loaded it into the back of a vehicle and drove away.

Mareraki’s method usually involves grabbing high value items and running from the stores where she jumps into a car and drives off. The car usually had false number plates, which had been stolen from other vehicles. Mareraki admitted receiving the stolen number plates.

On January 14, she and a male associate took cutlery and a blender worth $420 from a Christchurch city store, and walked out. Staff asked her to go back to the store but she refused and the pair drove off.

Mareraki ran out of a Kathmandu store in Ashburton on January 20 with jackets worth $3749.

She took 12 duvet covers from a store in Marshlands Road, and then two jackets from Kathmandu in Northlands mall. She dropped two other jackets as she made her exit. She ran out of Macpac in Tower Junction with four jackets worth $1249. Then there were nine more jackets from Kathmandu in the city, worth $3649.

Her methods came unstuck when she raided the Macpac store at Tower Junction again, a week after her first visit.

A staff member recognised her as she took jackets from a rack. She refused to stop and pushed past him as he tried to block her, but he called to other staff to lock the doors.

Mareraki was left demanding that the staff open the doors. When they refused, she picked up a metal-framed baby carrier and ran at a staff member. She then lunged at the staff member and tried to grab her. She scratched the woman’s arm, but the woman managed to get away.

The store manager said he would open the door if Mareraki dropped the jackets. When she dropped them, the manager told her how to open the doors, but she then partially unlocked them and then prised them open, causing them to come off the hinges.

Mareraki then snatched some of the jackets and when the manager held her bag to stop her leaving, she dropped her bag but ran away with the jackets worth $689. The staff member had bruises and scratches.

Mareraki shoplifted toys at a toystore, bras at a clothing store, beauty items at a supermarket, and more jackets worth $5139 when she made a third visit to Macpac at Tower Junction. She took another batch of jackets worth $4199 in another raid on Kathmandu in Ashburton.

She also committed several petrol drive-off thefts.

She was caught on March 7 when a police senior sergeant stopped her car on Hereford Street in Linwood and told her she was being detained and the car was being search. Mareraki pushed the officer, struggled and tried to break free, and then repeatedly slashed at his face with her hands. He had several cuts to his face but did not need medical treatment.

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A 31-year-old woman who got children involved in her organised shoplifting has been jailed for four years six months.

Crown prosecutor Mitchell McClenaghan said authorities and agencies were now left to try to “patch up” the damage that Melissa Mary Haereroa had done with the young offenders.

Some of the young people were being dealt with by the Youth Court, but two of Haereroa’s adult co-offenders were sentenced with her in the Christchurch District Court.

Mr McClenaghan also described Haereroa’s other offending as despicable – she was part of a group that scammed three victims as old as 84 out of their bank cards and emptied $69,540 from their accounts.

He said it was “disgraceful and horrid” offending and the pre-sentence report said Haereroa showed no sign of insight nor remorse.

Haereroa was appearing for sentence on a total of 29 charges including shoplifting, fraud, breaches of supervision and community work sentences, driving while suspended, and assault on Ballantynes shop staff who confronted her about her stealing. She had pleaded guilty.

At an earlier appearance, Judge Jane Farish told Haereroa: “You are your own personal crime wave.”

Ballantynes staff members, who are Maori and Pacific Islanders, said they were disappointed that the offender they spotted was Maori and had chosen a life of crime at such a young age. One said: “You are living up to the stereotype of Maori youths wearing hoodies. You are the reason why others get looked at twice and their bags get checked in stores.”

Judge Farish said Haereroa had not been a good role model with her “staunch and violent behaviour” in Ballantynes, which had been captured on video.

Defence counsel Moana Cole said Haereroa now had work for the first time in her life – cooking in the prison kitchen. She was considered a good worker.

She noted that the Crown had dropped charges of being part of an organised criminal group, and added: “This was a group of individuals who were not a good influence on each other. It unfortunately became very persistent.”

Haereroa’s 12 shoplifting charges mainly involved higher value items, sometimes more than $1000.

Judge Farish said Haereroa had engaged well with programmes in prison and had connected with her heritage. She jailed the mother of four for four years six months, disqualified her from driving for a year, and ordered no reparations for the losses. Repayment from Haereroa was unrealistic.

Georgia Wednezday Roberts, 28, was released on a year’s intensive supervision after a year in custody on remand. She had admitted 13 charges of dishonestly using a document and shoplifting.

Judge Farish will continue judicially monitoring her with regular reports while she applies for entry into the rugby academy and attends a cultural programme. She is regarded as a gifted athlete. Reparation totalling $1742 was ordered.

Tayla-Dane Korau, 27, had already served the equivalent of a 21-month sentence in custody on remand, and was released on 12 months of intensive supervision, with judicial monitoring, and reparation of $696. She had admitted eight theft charges, and methamphetamine and firearm charges.

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Name suppression has lifted on a 17-year-old charged with the murder of Cyrus Alexis Alupis, who was stabbed to death in Greymouth last month.

The youth is Lewis Floyd McKenzie, who had been granted interim suppression of name when he was remanded in custody at the Greymouth District Court on July 30.

Justice Cameron Mander lifted the order at a call-over in the High Court at Christchurch today, and remanded McKenzie in custody to Tuesday for a bail application which will also be held in Christchurch.

Mr Alupis, a 41-year-old West Coast man, was found stabbed on Cowper Street, Greymouth, about 2am on July 30. He was taken to Grey Base Hospital but died shortly afterwards.

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A teenager has pleaded guilty to manslaughter for his role in the death of a man who was found injured in a Sumner carpark in March 2017 and later died in hospital.

Moses Eli Hurrell was aged 16 at the time of the incident in which Pierclaudio Raviola died and originally had name suppression because of his age. That order was lifted after three months.

The youth, now aged 17, had been due to stand trial for murder in the High Court at Christchurch next month, until the Crown agreed to accept a plea to manslaughter at a pre-trial session before Justice David Gendall.

Hurrell admitted that charge and another of burglary today and was remanded in custody for sentencing on September 10, before the murder trial for two alleged co-offenders is due to begin.

The charges allege the unlawful act that constituted manslaughter occurred between March 23 and March 26, 2017, and the burglary of a property in Mathesons Road, Phillipstown, occurred on March 23.

Justice Gendall suppressed the summary of facts ahead of the trial and ordered a pre-sentence report and a report on cultural factors for Hurrell’s sentencing.

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A Christchurch teacher in his 60s has been remanded on 17 sexual abuse charges, some dating back 14 years.

The man was granted interim name suppression at an appearance before Judge Tony Couch in the Christchurch District Court yesterday.

Judge Couch remanded him on bail to appear again on September 13.

Police did not oppose bail, but requested a condition that the man not travel nor apply for travel documents. That was granted.

The man, who is currently not working, faces charges of indecently assaulting a girl aged under 12, and charges of sexual violation of the same girl, including a rape charge. He is charged with indecently assaulting and sexually violating another alleged victim between 2013 and this year.

No pleas were entered.

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A 70-year-old retired hospital worker faces a $347,408 bill after 20 years of benefit fraud.

The Christchurch District Court was told the woman was struggling to arrange any reparation payments because the police have got an order freezing her assets so that they can seize them.

Pauline Urana Lowen pleaded guilty to five charges – two of them are representative charges covering dozens of individual offences – in the Christchurch District Court today.

Judge David Saunders remanded her on bail for sentencing on December 19, and asked for a pre-sentence report which will consider her suitability for home detention.

Judge Saunders said he would grant bail pending sentencing because of her age, and because she still may be allowed an electronically monitored sentence.

Lowen also goes by the surnames Mundy and Williams.

Defence counsel Richard Maze said the Commissioner of Police had sought a restraining order in civil forfeiture proceedings to freeze all of her assets.

He asked for the sentencing to be delayed until December so that forfeiture action could be decided. He said she should be allowed to dispose of the property so that she could offer a substantial reparation payment at the sentencing.

Questioned by the judge, Mr Maze said “domestic disharmony” had severely impaired her decision making. “But it is not enough to amount to a defence,” he said.

Ministry of Social Development prosecutor Jennifer North said that in 1984, Lowen was granted a domestic purposes benefit after the birth of her son. She received this until July 2003 when she applied for an invalid’s benefit, citing a lower back injury as the reason she was unable to work.

In February 2013, she became eligible for superannuation and applied for this as a single person living alone.

She was required to tell the Ministry of Social Development of any change in her circumstances that might affect her entitlement, or the rate of benefit. This included a change in her work situation, or financial circumstances, or her relationship situation.

As a result of information the MSD received, inquiries were begun.

That established that she began living in a marriage-type relationship in August 1997, and married her partner on December 26, 1997. The couple had lived together continuously since this time.

Lowen did not tell the MSD of the relationship. Her partner was employed and she was not entitled to a single rate of benefit.

She began work for the Canterbury District Health Board in 2008. She was not detected by data matching by the Inland Revenue Department because she was working under a different IRD nmber that she used for benefit purposes. She also used a different birthdate.

Lowen submitted forms to the MSD stating that she was not working and unable to work, and continued to receive a single rate of invalid’s benefit.

She submitted 49 forms to the MSD over 20 years that contained false details about her relationship status, her work, and her income and assets.

She also sent two letters about rental property arrangements which enabled her to receive supplementary assistance.

The main overpayments over the 20-year period were $113,524 for the invalid’s benefit, $68,454 for the accommodation supplement, and $61,207 for the domestic purposes benefit.

Miss North said Lowen made seven repayments from her superannation of $100 a fortnight. “At this current rate of repayment, she would have paid this debt off by 2150.”

Lowen later sought a review of the repayment arrangement and it was suspended until the review was heard.

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Seven years after his jailing for a one-punch manslaughter in a Dunedin McDonalds, Matthew Bryce Larson has been imprisoned again for a head-kick after an argument at a Christchurch bar.

Larson, 30, denied that he was the one who delivered the full-blooded rugby-style kick that broke a man’s nose after he had been dragged out of a taxi in Hereford Street.

He maintained that denial as he was sentenced to two years’ ten months’ jail by Judge Tom Gilbert in the Christchurch District Court. He had been found guilty of intentionally injuring the other man, by a jury at a trial in May.

In 2011, Larson was jailed for three years for the single punch that killed 51-year-old Steve Radnoty when he fell and hit his head heavily on the tiled floor of the Dunedin fast-food outlet. He never regained consciousness and died in Dunedin Hospital, surrounded by family members.

Judge Gilbert noted that Larson had been involved again in street violence. He said that the fight followed an argument in the Rockpool Bar, with another man dragging the victim out of a taxi as it was making a three-point turn, and then Larson delivering a kick that amounted to significant violence.

Defence counsel Trudi Aickin said Larson had written two letters acknowledging the role that anger and drugs had played in his life. While on remand in custody he had completed an eight-week alcohol and drug course and a literacy and numeracy course.

She said that after his manslaughter conviction he had abstained from alcohol, and he had got himself tattooed to remind himself of the incident and the role that alcohol had played.

Larson had written a letter saying that he was “truly sorry” to be involved in the August 2015 incident in Christchurch, but he still denied being the person who delivered the kick.

Crown prosecutor Pip Norman said the force of the kick aimed at the head made it a serious assault, and the victim was lucky he did not receive a more serious injury. She pointed to the similarity of the street violence incidents Larson had been involved in.

Judge Gilbert said there had been an incident inside the Rockpool bar on August 8, 2015. The victim believed it may have arisen over the bumping of a drink. This led to Larson challenging him to a fight, but he had declined.

There was another verbal exchange when people were leaving about 3.25am, and then the trial was told that Larson and another man ran at the taxi as the victim was leaving. The other person dragged the victim out of the cab, and the Crown said Larson delivered the kick while he was on the ground.

The victim required corrective surgery for his badly broken nose.

The judge said there had been a “mild” element of provocation from the victim, but it had only been verbal and Larson had been the one who was “spoiling for a fight”.

It was 2016 when the police caught up with Larson, but he claimed it was a case of mistaken identity. Judge Gilbert said there were distinctive features of his appearance including tattoos and ear stretchers.

Larson also faced sentencing for driving twice within four days while his licence was suspended for demerit points, and once driving off from the police at high speed.

He had 30 previous convictions including assault on a woman, and manslaughter, and he had five previous convictions for driving while disqualified or suspended, as well as dangerous driving, and several for drink-driving.

The judge jailed Larson for two years ten months, with 15 months of disqualification from driving.

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A 37-year-old man arrested after an alleged “low speed” pursuit across Christchurch four weeks ago is denying all charges.

Dawson Reihana elected trial by jury when he appeared by video link before Judge Tom Gilbert in the Christchurch District Court yesterday.

The judge remanded him to a case review hearing on November 7, and an application for his release on electronically monitored bail will be heard on September 3.

A car allegedly driven by Reihana was blocked and brought to a stop by police patrol cars on Cranford Street, St Albans – damaging three of them – after a pursuit that began in in Waltham, and continued through the central city and Mairehau.

Reihana denies 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.

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File image. © Andrew Bardwell

The father of a 32-year-old woman passenger killed in a high-speed crash near Burnham, told the Christchurch District Court that she was “killed by the actions of an idiot”.

At the sentencing of Craig Richard Bennett, 36, of Dunsandel, both Jaimey Leigh Fellows’ parents read their victim impact reports, and her mother said she could not condone the horrific speed involved, and the driving which was reckless and dangerous.

She said Bennett made a terrible mistake. The accident trail was over 200m, was horrific to view, and looked like a plane crash site.

She said she attended a restorative justice meeting with Bennett, where he apologised. She said she would like to work with Bennett, when he is released from prison, to teach youth drivers the dangers of speeding.

Crown prosecutor, Sean Mallett, said Fellows’ was a needless death, and there was no justification for Bennett to be travelling at over 200km an hour with no regard for his passenger or the public on the road.

Witnesses said he was overtaking cars in no passing areas, and sparks were coming off his car.

Defence counsel Andrew McCormick said Bennett was broken both physically and mentally, and had been seriously injured. He accepted full responsibility, and apologised profusely to the victim’s family.

Bennett offered the family emotional harm reparation of $10,000.

Judge Brian Callaghan said he could not find another case where the speed at the time of the accident was over 200km an hour. He was sentencing Bennett on a charge of driving dangerously causing death, which Bennett had admitted.

He said Bennett was driving on Main South Road at 12.03am on October 21. He sped up when the speed limit was 80km an hour and continued at speed when he overtook a truck on double yellow lines.

At Burnham he overtook a car, but lost control of his car, crossed the centre line, and collided with a fence post which hit the passenger’s door. The car barrel-rolled a number of times, and Miss Fellows’ seatbelt snapped and she was thrown out of the car on the last barrel roll. The car came to rest 200m from where the crash happened.

He said it was inevitable that a car travelling at this speed would come to a grievous end, and dangerous speed was a deliberate action.

He sentenced Bennett to two years’ eight months’ prison, disqualified him from driving for four years and said he was to pay the reparation he had offered to Fellows family.

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A horse trainer’s career is likely in tatters – she may be banned from all racecourses – after her conviction for what she thought was going to be a cannabis burglary.

A representative of the Racing Integrity Unit was at the Christchurch District Court to watch the sentencing of Candice Ruth Orange, 37.

The unit will decide her future, but her work as a stablehand and caring for her own horses now looks in doubt because a seven-month home detention sentencing will block that happening.

Orange now lives at Rangiora. Judge Alistair Garland imposed a special condition for her to undergo any recommended “alcohol and drug intervention” required by her probation officer.

She was sobbing and in tears after finding out what the sentence was going to be for her role in the February 2017 burglary.

Defence counsel April Kelland had urged the judge to impose the lighter community detention sentence recommended in her pre-sentence report, which would have let her continue working.

She said Orange had been in the racing industry for 22 years and her horse training career had really taken off.

“Her situation now is that she will be sanctioned under the racing industry rules, and unless there is an exemption granted, she will be totally barred from any racecourses,” she said.

Judge Garland said Orange had previously been in a relationship with the burglary victim and had texted him to join her for the evening at her house.

While he was there, she was in text contact with her current partner at the time, Timothy Kinghorn. The pair had planned that Kinghorn would go to the victim’s house and burgle a container where they believed cannabis was being grown.

In fact – without Orange’s knowledge – Kinghorn broke into the house and took items worth $22,636 and two firearms. Throughout the evening of the burglary, Orange was texting him about the victim’s location and movements.

Judge Garland said the burglary had been carefully planned and had involved deception to ensure the victim was not at home. It was a breach of trust. The pair had agreed to do something unlawful, so Orange had been a party to Kinghorn’s crime.

The judge noted that Orange had few convictions – three driving convictions including drink-driving and driving while disqualified – while Kinghorn had a record of serious offending including a 2014 jail term. He was earlier jailed for two years three months by Judge Garland for this latest burglary.

“I am prepared to accept counsel’s submission that you were influenced by Kinghorn to become involved in this serious offending,” the judge told Orange.

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A judge says the son of the late philanthropist and Mainfreight founder Neil Graham must have been “wilfully blind” not to realise how much cannabis was being grown on his property at Ellesmere.

But the police accept the offending was not as sinister as when 51-year-old Dean Alan Lindsay Graham was arrested 18 months ago in a raid on a rural property southwest of Christchurch.

They dropped six charges against Dean Graham at the Christchurch District Court today and he then admitted charges of allowing his premises to be used for growing cannabis, a licensing breach under the Arms Act over firearms found at the property, and possession of a cannabis pipe.

Neil Graham, the co-founder of trucking giant company Mainfreight, died in September 2015, aged 71, after a long illness.

Judge Tom Gilbert said the police accepted they could not prove beyond reasonable doubt that Dean Graham knew how much cannabis was being grown by someone else in a shipping container and trailer unit on the property.

Graham had thought it was a handful of plants. But police found a sophisticated hydroponic growing room with transformers, ducting, lighting rigs, and nutrition supply system. They found 109 cannabis seedlings and 29 grown plants in the trailer unit and four dead cannabis plants in the container.

Defence counsel Jonathan Eaton QC told the court that Graham knew some cannabis was being grown by another person and had provided police with the name and address of the person involved.

“You must have been wilfully blind to what was going on,” Judge Gilbert told Graham. “The grow was clearly a reasonable grow with a commercial end to it.”

Police searched the 1 hectare property on January 25, 2017, and in Graham’s bedroom they found a .22 rifle and a Webley revolver as well as ammunition. Mr Eaton said the firearms had been inherited from his father’s collection. The Webley was a collector’s item which had never been used. The rifle was used for shooting rabbits.

He said the police had originally laid unlawful possession charges relating to the firearms and ammunition. “But they now accept that it is a licensing offence rather than the pistol being possessed for some nefarious purpose.”

Judge Gilbert noted that Graham had previous convictions for similar offending, but they were more than 30 years ago. He accepted that Graham had had a difficult few years “with the breakdown of a marriage, the death of parents, and depression and anxiety”.

He imposed a sentence of 80 hours’ community work, and a fine of $500. He ordered that all the drugs equipment be destroyed.

Dean Graham had interim name suppression after his arrest, but it has now been lifted.

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