Police allege Chinese men with false licences were used as tourist drivers by a Christchurch company.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Grant Neal named the company as Alps Travel, which has offices in Ilam, Christchurch, and also in Queenstown and Auckland.

The police say the men are producing valid licences belonging to other Chinese men.

Allegations on charge sheets before the Christchurch District Court today are that the offending occurred on the Milford Road to Te Anau, in Fiordland, in January and February.

Sergeant Neal told Judge Jane McMeeken that one case that came before the court was “the tip of the iceberg”, because five driver prosecutions involving Alps Travel were before the court today.

He said: “These residents of China have come over without driver’s licences and have used or produced other associates’ drivers licences while conducting tour operations.”

The court was told that one driver, Jiasheng Wu, 24, of Upper Riccarton, had now returned to China after he unable to get a different type of work visa. His lawyer, Shirllay Sun, said he had been assured by his employer that the licence he was using was appropriate.

He appeared on charges of driving on State Highway 94 without an appropriate licence and dishonestly using a document – a driver’s licence. The dishonesty charge is laid under the Crimes Act.

His lawyer said he admitted the charge of driving without a licence and Judge McMeeken fined him $400, but because he was not present at court an arrest warrant was issued on the Crimes Act charge.

“It is a serious matter and needs some resolution,” said the judge.

Sergeant Neal said: “This is a situation where they are operating as tour operators, driving without New Zealand driver’s licences, and producing other residents’ driver’s licences. There are several prosecutions in relation to the one company.”

Two other people facing related prosecutions in Christchurch were given registrar’s remands, without plea to get legal advice, and did not appear before the judge.

Jiayuan Chen, 24, of Lincoln, is charged with aiding Wu to drive on State Highway 94 without an appropriate driver’s licence and a fraud charge relating to a driver’s licence.

Suyan Qi, 21, of Avonhead, is charged with dishonestly using a licence and driving without an appropriate licence on the Milford Road.

Both were remanded for further appearances on September 29.

It was expected that warrants may be issued later for two other men who did not appear at court.

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A woman has been jailed for manufacturing and dealing in a “drug of the past”, while her husband was sentenced to home detention for letting his premises be used to make the heroin.

In the Christchurch District Court, 53-year-old Joanne Kim Halliday was told by Judge Tom Gilbert that even if the sentence he imposed of 27 months had been in the range of a home detention sentence it would not have been granted.

Defence counsel Tony Garrett said Halliday had struggled with long term drug dependency, and her manufacturing and supplying text data showed she had a small number of regular persistent purchasers who put her under pressure.

Judge Gilbert said on April 12, 2016, police spoke to a man after he had left the address in Wilsons Road, Waltham.

He had a syringe with a capped needle attached, and said it was morphine that he had bought from Halliday for $100.

ESR analysed the liquid which was mainly water and contained heroin and morphine.

A search warrant was executed and police found 18 spoons containing filters on the oven, and 152 empty morphine sulphate capsules, hundreds of new needles and syringes in the spare room.

In the bedroom was a wallet with $1100 in cash mainly $50 notes.

He ordered the $1100 be forfeited to the Crown, and said heroin was a drug of the past, with nothing to recommend it, and she was introducing the drug into the market for a commercial purpose.

He then sentenced her husband, 63-year-old Neil Christopher Parkin on a charge of allowing his premises to be used for drug manufacture. He said Parkin had failed to prevent what was going on, but benefitted from the money from drug sales.

Defence counsel Glenn Dixon said Parkin’s health was declining. He had a lung disorder from a lifetime of smoking opiates, but was not using drugs now.

He said Parkin would struggle with his wife being in prison, and he would not be able to visit her.

Judge Gilbert said Parkin’s pre-sentence report said he knew Halliday’s drug activities were unwise, and he didn’t want to have anything to do with the drugs. He said Parkin didn’t do what he could have, or should have, to stop it.
Parkin was a disinterested bystander, and did not actively encourage his wife, he said.

Parkin was sentenced to eight months’ home detention, and 120 hours’ community work.

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Home detention has been granted to a 22-year-old man who admitted cutting a skateboarder in the neck during a street confrontation.

The cut to the back of the victim’s neck needed stitching after a trip to hospital by ambulance, though the skateboarder did not realise at the time how badly he had been hurt.

Dallas Hanipale, a cable installer, has avoided a jail sentence because of his youth – he was aged 21 at the time – and because he has never offended before. He had shown concern for the victim and had been willing to attend a restorative justice meeting. The victim had declined the meeting.

He was appearing for sentence in the Christchurch District Court after pleading guilty to the reduced charge of wounding the victim with reckless disregard for his safety.

Hanipale and the skateboarder met at 2.40am on April 3, on Stanmore Road, while the victim was making his way to an inner city hotel.

They stopped and talked, but Hanipale became aggressive and the two traded punches. Hanipale cut the other man on the back of the neck, apparently with the sharp edge of a broken glass he was holding.

The victim broke free and flagged down a passing car to get him away. Only after he was taken home did he realise how badly he had been cut, and called an ambulance.

Defence counsel Pip Hall QC urged that a community detention sentence with intensive supervision be imposed, but Crown prosecutor Claire Boshier asked for the more stringent home detention term.

Judge Paul Kellar said the courts held that where broken bottles or glasses were used in assaults there was a likelihood of serious injury, and it was fortunate there was no life-threatening injury in this case.

He noted that Hanipale said he could not remember everything that occurred. The pre-sentence report on him said that the crime may not have happened if alcohol had not been involved. Hanipale reported that he had not used alcohol since the incident.

Judge Kellar said it was serious offending involving serious injury.

He imposed six months of home detention at an address in Bishopdale, with another six months of special release conditions to follow the sentence.

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A third man has been arrested for the robbery of the Kirk Road dairy, Templeton, on September 5.

Adam Moore, 21, appeared in the Christchurch District Court today on charges of possession of an offensive weapon, aggravated robbery, and two charges of breaching bail.

He was remanded in custody by Judge Gary MacAskill to appear on September 29, by video-link from Christchurch Prison.

He entered no pleas, and will get legal advice during the remand.

Police allege that three offenders, heavily disguised and carrying a pistol and a metal bar, entered the dairy about 12pm, and one of them manhandled the dairy owner while the other two targeted cash and cigarettes. The dairy owner was punched, but did not require medical treatment.

Two other men were arrested and appeared in court last week. Reuben Banks, 18, was remanded in custody to September 22, and Bradley Gavin Moore, an 18-year-old concrete worker who is the brother of Adam Moore, was remanded in custody to September 26.

None of the three have entered pleas. They have been jointly charged.

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A 23-year-old Ashburton man was remanded in custody on a charge of murdering a 25-year-old who was allegedly stabbed to death in the town on Tuesday night.

The man, from Allenton, was remanded without plea for an appearance in the High Court at Timaru on October 4.

He is charged with murdering Tainui James Wano.

Duty lawyer Kiran Paima said no bail application was being made and asked for an interim suppression order “to protect fair trial rights” as well as the remand to the High Court.

Judge David Saunders said fair trial rights were not a ground for suppression, but agreed to make the order until the High Court appearance, when it would need to be fully argued with more substantial grounds.

He accepted that the man had just been arrested and family members would need to be notified in the meantime.

The man, and the public gallery, remained silent throughout the court appearance.

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A former excavation manager has $115,971 ready to pay back to the firm he ripped off by getting work done in their name, to fund his gambling.

Lindsay Ian Cresswell, 28, had been told to get the money ready ahead of his Christchurch District Court sentencing on three charges – and he did.

It will be paid back to Canterbury Concrete Cutting NZ Ltd (trading as Concut), and Cresswell will do 10 months of home detention at an address in Kaiapoi.

Cresswell had pleaded guilty to three charges of theft by a person in a special relationship.

The court was told that since his guilty pleas in July, Cresswell had raised the reparation money. He had no previous convictions and had made “a positive contribution in other ways”.

Cresswell has now established his own business which employs five people. The home detention sentence will allow him to continue running the business.

Judge Gary MacAskill said that while at Concut he had provided quotes and carried out work for 16 homeowners, without telling the firm. He had sent out invoices using its letterhead, but had used his own bank account to receive payments totalling $191,773.

Contractors were paid from that total, but Cresswell received more than $115,000, which had since been repaid in full. The offending took place in 2013 and 2014.

“This was a moderately sophisticated and sustained course of fraud while you were holding a position of trust,” said the judge.

He noted that Cresswell admitted to the probation officer in his pre-sentence interview that he had stolen the money to fund his gambling habit.

Cresswell provided a letter dated January 2015 from the Christchurch Casino that shows he requested self-exclusion. “I accept that shows that an an early setage you tried to address the underlying cause of your offending,” said the judge.

The offending had involved exploiting the firm’s computer system with procedures that were difficult to detect. It had had a significant impact on the firm and its business interests, said the judge.

He imposed home detention, with an additional six months subject to post-release conditions. Cresswell will have to work as approved by his probation officer, and take any rehabilitation courses as directed.

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A man has been jailed for 14 months for violence and a firearms incident at a child’s birthday party at Rangiora in December.

Marcus Noel Read Cuthbert, 36, was jailed by Judge Stephen O’Driscoll at his Christchurch District Court sentencing, after admitting three charges in April.

The jail term will be followed by six months of standard and special prison release conditions.

Judge O’Driscoll ordered the destruction of the air rifle involved in the offending and issued a final protection order for one of the women victims.

Cuthbert expressed an interest in attending rehabilitation programmes during the jail term.

Cuthbert had earlier admitted charges of assaulting a woman, assault with intent to injure, and presenting a firearm at a person.

He was at the party on December 12 when he took one victim’s son to his van, and then told his mother that the boy wanted to speak to her.

When she was walking to the van Cuthbert grabbed her by the throat, then shoved her in the chest. She ran inside the address, and the second victim came out and spoke to Cuthbert. Cuthbert took an air rifle out of his boot and pointed it at the man.

Cuthbert drove away from the address with the boy in the car but arrived back about five minutes later.

He started arguing with the woman again, who tried to take the keys off him while he was sitting in the driver’s seat. Cuthbert grabbed her hand and bit it, shaking his head from side to side, then drove away again.

The woman suffered chunks of skin missing from her hand, and bruising around her neck and face.

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Thirty-two-year-old Sainey Marong was abused and threatened again in court as he pleaded not guilty to the murder of sex worker Renee Duckmanton.

His trial has been set in the High Court at Christchurch for next June.

Supporters of the victim shouted abuse at Marong and yelled, “Set you on fire”, as he made his appearance at a case review hearing before Justice Cameron Mander.

All of his three court appearances have now been marked by shouting and threats.

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

The charge alleges that he murdered her at Christchurch on that day or the previous day.

Sarong had name suppression until the order lapsed when an appeal to the Court of Appeal was abandoned two months ago.

Justice Mander remanded Marong in custody for a pre-trial callover on November 25. The date set for the start of the three-week trial is June 7, 2017.

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Two people arrested after a road spikes were used to end a police chase in North Canterbury on Thursday night were remanded in custody at the Christchurch District Court today.

The chase ended on the Rangiora-Woodend Road after 11pm when road spikes brought the car to a stop and it caught fire and it then caught fire.

Christopher Warren Corfield, 32, a mechanic from Kaiapoi, was remanded in custody to September 30 on charges of unlawfully taking a $10,000 car at Rangiora, driving recklessly at Rangiora, and failing to stop for the police.

He entered no pleas and the remand was to get legal advice.

Michelle Susan Wallace, 32, of Kaiapoi, was remanded in custody to November 29 on charges of unlawfully taking the same vehicle, possession of the class C drug Clonazepam, and possession of a cannabis pipe. She entered no pleas.

A 24-year-old man police said they arrested after the incident did not appear at court today.

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Four people who did a night time raid on a Springston property to recover $1300 they said was owed from a rip-off are now facing jail terms for armed robbery.

The four pleaded guilty in the Christchurch District Court today and were all remanded in custody for sentencing on December 7.

They were all arrested early on March 27 after the violent and dramatic incident involving the robbery of four innocent victims and two car chases when the police closed in.

The robbers had apparently targeted a man who had been staying at the rural house for about a week, sleeping on the couch, but he was not at the house when the incident unfolded at 1am on a Sunday.

Before the court were Joshua James Watkinson, 21, of Coutts Island, Douglas Anaru Lockley, 31, of Burnside, Paratene Forreste Guy Aupouri Coleman, a 27-year-old butcher from St Albans, and Katherine Pamela Allison, 21, of Redwood, who all admitted the charge of aggravated robbery.

Watkinson had previously admitted charges of driving while disqualified, dangerous driving, and failing to stop for the police, arising from the same incident.

Allison had previously admitted dangerous driving, failing to stop, and possession of methamphetamine and a pipe for smoking it.

Crown prosecutor Deidre Orchard said it might be worthwhile getting an assessment of Allison’s suitability for home detention as part of the pre-sentence reports that were called for. Allison was a first offender, but even so, a home detention sentence seemed unlikely on such serious charges.

The four will be given first-strike warnings at sentencing, under the system that imposes heavier penalties on repeat violent offenders.

Four people were asleep at the house when the intruders entered. Three had bandanas covering parts of their faces. Watkinson had an imitation pistol, Allison had a knife, and Lockley was wielding a metal pole.

They demanded to know where the fifth person was, who had been sleeping on the sofa, and looked through the house. Some of the occupants were threatened with the weapons, and Allison took their cell phones. She also cut the cords to the landline telephones.

Watkinson said he was taking $1300 worth of property because that was the amount owed, and the man who had been staying on the couch had ripped the defendants off over some type of deal.

The intruders removed two televisions, five cell phones, two other phones, and two laptop computers.

Lockley smashed the windows on a car at the property, and when one of the occupants grabbed an axe and confronted the intruders, Watkinson put the gun to his head and demanded that he drop it.

The victim was then struck several times with the metal pole.

One of the woman occupants then phoned the police on a cell phone that had not been taken away.

The stolen property was loaded into a car and the four left. The police saw both cars and tried to get them to stop using their flashing lights. The two police pursuits that followed ended at Rolleston and near Dunsandel. At one stage, Allison had driven at up to 170km an hour, the police said. She had also driven with the lights turned off.

Watkinson told the police he had gone to the address to get his money back from one of the occupants for a debt.

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A 28-year-old woman has admitted fraudulently using a bank card taken only an hour earlier in a gunpoint street robbery.

Janitta Chloe Pash, admitted charges of receiving items stolen in the robbery, and dishonestly using the bank card, at an appearance by video-link from the prison, at the Christchurch District Court today.

She had earlier admitted charges of unlawfully having a knife in a public place, and breaches of prison release conditions.

Judge Brian Callaghan remanded her in custody for sentence on November 23. At the request of defence counsel Tom Smedley he asked for an alcohol and drug assessment before the sentencing, and an updated pre-sentence report.

Police said that about 7.20pm on August 20, a man was robbed at gunpoint by two people on Wainoni Road, soon after he finished work at a nearby dairy.

His bag was taken containing his wallet with $20 in cash, a bank debit card, and other bank and loyalty cards, a cell phone, and passport photographs.

Pash received property taken in the robbery within a very short time, and police say she was “reckless” about whether it had been stolen.

Forty-two minutes after the robbery, she used the bank debit card to buy tobacco and cigarettes worth $67.60 at a service station in Linwood.

Ten minutes after that, she bought more tobacco and cigarettes using the card at a service station in the city.

Four minutes later, she tried to make the same purchase at the same service station, but the transaction was declined because the bank had cancelled it at the request of the police.

At 1pm on August 22, police raided the “Portacom” unit Pash occupies at an address in Ferry Road. They found a yellow shopping bag in a rubbish recycling bin outside, near Pash’s unit. It contained the stolen wallet, debit card, loyaly cards, and passport photographs. They also found the grey hooded sweatshirt worn when she tried to use the card.

When she was interviewed, she denied she had used the card, but had no explanation for how the wallet and its contents came to be at her address.

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A man has been sentenced to six month’s home detention at Odyssey House for “incredibly dangerous reckless driving”, after a high speed police chase across town in January.

Ricky Shane Stampa, 32, was told by Christchurch District Court Judge Jane Farish that he had been given chances, and should be locked up because he was a menace. He had been sentenced last year on similar offending, and was still disqualified from driving when this incident occurred.

But his latest pre-sentence report said Stampa had a long standing drug addiction problem and now realised he had to stop.

Defence counsel Paul Johnson said Stampa was committed to the Odyssey House rehabilitation programme. He said he had been gifted land and trees on the West Coast, and wanted to turn it into a business.

Judge Farish said she was sentencing Stampa on his eighth driving while disqualified offence, his reckless driving which was incredibly dangerous, failing to stop for police, assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, possession of a methamphetamine pipe, a breach of the Medicines Act, and failing to answer District Court bail. He had pleaded guilty.

Stampa was driving in Parklands early on January 15, when he accelerated away from a police patrol car using its lights and siren.

He drove on the wrong side of a roundabout, and did 100km an hour on Bower Avenue. He turned his lights off and continued through Wainoni and Linwood at speed.

In Aldwins Road police road spikes blew out two of his tyres, but he continued driving, turned onto Brougham Street and drove along on the wrong side.

He lost control of the car on the corner of Milton Street and Strickland Street and crashed into a fence.

A police sergeant tried to stop him running off, and was punched in the face, and five policemen restrained him.

Judge Farish sentenced Stampa to six months’ home detention at Odyssey House, with a further 12 months’ release conditions to undertake post-release programmes as recommended. She told him he would be judicially monitored so she would get reports on his progress every three months.

She also disqualified him from driving for a further 15 months, which meant he could not drive until 2019.

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Two people admitted conspiring to rob an unknown person of $12,000 cash in the Christchurch District Court today.

Paula Hardaker, 22, and Russell Stafford Ricardo Harris, 38, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to do an aggravated robbery, and unlawful possession of a pistol.

The police summary of facts said Hardaker phoned Harris and told him she had a male wanting to purchase drugs, and had $12,000 to spend.

The police already had an electronic investigation in place, with an interception device warrant to intercept private communications from Harris.

On April 7, Hardaker and Harris decided they were going to rob the man, but their messages were intercepted, and they were stopped by police in their car on Main South Road.

When the car was searched a .22 calibre semi-automatic pistol containing a magazine with four rounds was found beneath a plastic panel in the driver’s footwell.

The third person charged is being dealt with separately.

Judge Jane Farish remanded both offenders in custody, for sentencing on October 19.

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A man charged with causing grievous bodily harm to a baby has pleaded not guilty to eight charges in the Christchurch District Court.

The 35-year-old North Canterbury man was granted interim name suppression until his next appearance at a Crown case review hearing on December 5.

He has denied charges of causing grievous bodily harm to a 14-week-old baby, assaulting the baby, three charges of assaulting a woman with intent to injure her, and three charges of breaching a protection order by phoning and sending texts to a woman.

All charges are dated from June 2015 to July 2016.

Police did not oppose the interim name suppression application, and Judge Jane Farish said the file would be transferred to the Crown prosecutors’ office, and they could oppose it at the next appearance if they wished.

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Four-time drink-driver Sarah Jane Arrow, who crashed into walkers near Redcliffs sending two crashing onto rocks below the roadway, has been jailed for two years six months.

The Christchurch District Court was told of the devastation she caused, but it was also told she apologised for her offending and had attempted suicide in the months before the crash.

In imposing the jail term, Judge Stephen O’Driscoll said Arrow was assessed as being a high risk of reoffending and causing harm to others.

Arrow, 45, of Sumner, injured two people in the March 25 crash. She had pleaded guilty in May to charges of causing injury to the main victim when she was driving with 1009mcg of alcohol to a litre of breath, and breaching the terms of a zero-alcohol licence.

Defence counsel Allister Davis said Arrow’s life had spiralled after the death of her mother. Arrow had tried to take her own life early this year, and had then returned to her home in Sumner one day to find that her ex-husband had taken her children and cleared out all the furniture.

She was told she would never see her children again, Mr Davis said. “She hit the bottle.”

She had been significantly intoxicated at 2pm, when she rounded a corner, had the sun in her eyes, and had the crash.

Mr Davis said she had done treatment courses. She was a responsible member of society when she was not “on the juice”, he said.

The case had caused feelings to run high, in the community and in the media, which had led to him receiving 48 text messages on one night from an unknown person who abused him for representing Arrow at court.

He said she accepted responsibility and apologised to the victim and his girlfriend, because she realised she had caused “considerable damage to their lives”. She had been trying since the accident to get herself back on the straight and narrow.

A statement from the victim, Ben Appleton, was read in court telling of still being in constant physical pain because of the multiple traumas that occurred. His injuries included a fractured skull, spinal fracture, broken ribs, punctured lung, broken shoulder, two broken legs, and scars from landing on the rocks.

The accident caused by Arrow had happened only nine days after he had begun his career after gaining his university degree.

He said: “She has been there before and this time she has nearly killed someone.”

Police prosecutor Aja Trinder said a starting point of 30-months’ imprisonment was warranted, before the sentence was adjusted for other factors. A term of imprisonment was the only appropriate outcome.

Police said that members of the public had called police about her driving, because she was reported to be swerving, when she was on Main Road, Redcliffs.

She failed to take a corner and struck a roadside barrier, which threw two pedestrians off a 2m bank and onto the rocks below.

Her breath test at the scene indicated a level of 1009mcg of alcohol to a litre of breath. The legal limit is 250mcg.

One pedestrian received minor bruises and scratches while the other suffered extensive injuries requiring on-going treatment and surgery.

Arrow told police she had drunk two glasses of wine before driving and she had the sun in her eyes at the time of the crash.

Judge Stephen O’Driscoll said he had refused the media permission to photograph Arrow in court.

He said the victim had received significant injuries that were likely to have long-lasting effects.

The breath-alcohol level was high, and Arrow had driven when she was subject to a zero-alcohol licence. The accident had caused significant injuries, and she had three previous convictions for drink-driving in 1997, in 2011, and in 2013 when the level was 1352mcg.

Arrow was ordered to pay $2500 emotional harm reparations to the main victim, and she was disqualified from driving indefinitely.

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A heavily pregnant woman was taken straight back to hospital by Corrections staff, after being sentenced to nineteen months’ prison for $9188 of dishonesty offending.

Christchurch District Court Judge David Saunders said Rosie-Jeanne Rita Sew Hoy, 24, had already had three children removed from her care because of her addiction to alcohol.

He said she would be detained in a specialised unit for mothers and babies at the prison, which would enable her to get some parenting skills.

He sentenced her on five theft charges, eight charges of obtaining by deception, and two of causing loss by deception.

Defence counsel Tom Smedley said Sew Hoy was having difficulties with her pregnancy which were being monitored, but she had stopped drinking during it.

Judge Saunders said Sew Hoy had been bailed on dishonesty charges, and within a few weeks was offending again.

One victim of her offending wrote in her report that the only way Sew Hoy could make the offending right was to pay back the money she stole, even if it was only at $2 a week.

Judge Saunders said from February 2015 Sew Hoy deceived people by using their driver’s licences, and Facebook, to obtain money that she used to buy alcohol. She also stole petrol from service stations.

Sew Hoy had previous community detention and supervision sentences, but still chose the pathway of taking money from innocent people.

He said she expressed sorrow but could not deliver on reparation, which was also still owed from previous offending and fines.

He sentenced her to 19 months’ prison, and said she was to pay reparation of $9188.

Judge Saunders declined her defence counsel’s request to grant leave to apply for home detention.

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The only Mongrel Mob associate to show any compassion to their kidnap and bashing victim, Dawson Reihana, during his 16-hour ordeal has been jailed for two years two months.

Anthony Kevin Peters, 42, drove the van during the Aotearoa Mongrel Mob incident in August last year. He took no part in the bashing of 35-year-old Reihana with hammers and knuckledusters, or the punching and stomping that was also involved.

Peters was called to an Ajax Street address in Shirley when Reihana – a member of the rival Notorious Mongel Mob chapter – had already been lured into a trap and bashed with hammers by at least three gangsters.

When he saw Reihana’s injuries he suggested that he be taken straight to hospital, but that was rejected by the other gang members.

He was then required to drive Reihana to another gang address in Bowenvale Avenue in Cashmere, where the beating continued, and he later drove Reihana around the city to force him to point out the addresses of gang associates.

During one of those trips, Peters gave Reihana a cigarette, Reihana told the trial of seven gang members and associates that took place in the High Court at Christchurch in August. Six were convicted and face sentencing – for much longer terms than Peters – on October 27. Two others pleaded guilty before the trial began.

Peters admitted the kidnapping charge before the trial and was remanded for sentence separately from the other offenders.

Defence counsel Pip Hall QC said Peters had already served a total of five months in custody on remand. He said there would be a chance for a “meaningful restorative justice meeting with the victim”. Peters “looks forward to doing that,” he said.

Justice Cameron Mander said Peters said he had been compelled to be involved in the events because of the threats of the co-offenders, and feared that if he did not comply he would have suffered very serious harm. Even so, he had not co-operated or provided any assistance to the police.

He referred to the incident as “gang warfare” and said: “Those who associate with gangs may reasonably anticipate that they will be placed under some sort of compulsion to take part in illegal activities.”

He also noted that Peters had a prior conviction for manslaughter in 2006, for which he received a 10-year jail term with a five-year non-parole term. That offence was not gang-related, though it did involve the death of a gang member.

Peters was released from prison in 2011 and had then done a drug rehabilitation course at Odyssey House as well as a vocational course, and had gained full-time employment.

He noted that he had been the only member of the group of Mongrel Mob offenders to show any compassion for Reihana during the 16-hour kidnapping and bashing, during which the victim had been bound hand and foot and unable to defend himself.

He had expressed genuine remorse, and empathy for the victim.

He imposed a two-year two-month jail term which was outside the range where home detention could be considered.

Anthony Kevin Peters, 42, drove the van during the Aotearoa Mongrel Mob incident in August last year. He took no part in the bashing of 35-year-old Reihana with hammers and knuckledusters, or the punching and stomping that was also involved.

Peters was called to an Ajax Street address in Shirley when Reihana – a member of the rival Notorious Mongel Mob chapter – had already been lured into a trap and bashed with hammers by at least three gangsters.

When he saw Reihana’s injuries he suggested that he be taken straight to hospital, but that was rejected by the other gang members.

He was then required to drive Reihana to another gang address in Bowenvale Avenue in Cashmere, where the beating continued, and he later drove Reihana around the city to force him to point out the addresses of gang associates.

During one of those trips, Peters gave Reihana a cigarette, Reihana told the trial of seven gang members and associates that took place in the High Court at Christchurch in August. Six were convicted and face sentencing – for much longer terms than Peters – on October 27. Two others pleaded guilty before the trial began.

Peters admitted the kidnapping charge before the trial and was remanded for sentence separately from the other offenders.

Defence counsel Pip Hall QC said Peters had already served a total of five months in custody on remand. He said there would be a chance for a “meaningful restorative justice meeting with the victim”. Peters “looks forward to doing that,” he said.

Justice Cameron Mander said Peters said he had been compelled to be involved in the events because of the threats of the co-offenders, and feared that if he did not comply he would have suffered very serious harm. Even so, he had not co-operated or provided any assistance to the police.

He referred to the incident as “gang warfare” and said: “Those who associate with gangs may reasonably anticipate that they will be placed under some sort of compulsion to take part in illegal activities.”

He also noted that Peters had a prior conviction for manslaughter in 2006, for which he received a 10-year jail term with a five-year non-parole term. That offence was not gang-related, though it did involve the death of a gang member.

Peters was released from prison in 2011 and had then done a drug rehabilitation course at Odyssey House as well as a vocational course, and had gained full-time employment.

He noted that he had been the only member of the group of Mongrel Mob offenders to show any compassion for Reihana during the 16-hour kidnapping and bashing, during which the victim had been bound hand and foot and unable to defend himself.

He had expressed genuine remorse, and empathy for the victim.

He imposed a two-year two-month jail term which was outside the range where home detention could be considered.

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The alleged driver facing 16 charges after a police pursuit through Christchurch on Thursday called out a Nazi salute when a judge remanded him in custody at the Christchurch District Court.

Terry Thane Daily, a 20-year-old plasterer from Phillipstown, made a gang sign and called out “Sieg f–g Heil” when Judge Philip Connell remanded him for an appearance by video-link from Christchurch Prison on October 20.

Police have charged him over a chase involving an allegedly stolen vehicle through Edgeware and Shirley early on Thursday afternoon. It was believed to have started in the city centre, and was abandoned for a time by the police because of the manner of driving.

Daily was remanded without plea after his bail application was refused.

He faces charges of unlawfully taking a $3000 Subaru car, failing to stop for the police while driving dangerously, failing to remain stopped for the police when they were trying to get his details, driving while disqualified in Shirley, reckless driving, resisting a police officer, unlawful possession of an air pistol and a knife, intentionally damaging a police car, possession of methamphetamine, assault using a car as a weapon, intentional damage and several charges of stealing petrol.

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A man who acted up in front of the judge at his last appearance was unco-operative again today on a video-link in the Christchurch District Court.

Luke James Henry, 31, had declined legal aid and wanted to represent himself.

He told Judge Gary MacAskill that he had not received disclosure from the police yet.

The police officer in court said Henry had written an expletive on the disclosure sheet, meaning he had been given it.

Judge MacAskill asked Henry again if he had received disclosure, and was told not to ask stupid questions, and swore at him. Henry got up and left the video-link booth at the Christchurch Men’s Prison.

Judge MacAskill asked the police to make sure Henry had full disclosure before his next appearance, and the court registrar was to send the next date to him.

He remanded him in custody to October 17 where he will appear again by video-link.

Last time he appeared, Henry made a throat-cutting gesture to his alleged rape victim who was sitting in the court’s public seating and was visible to him over the two-way video-link.

Henry appeared on three rape charges, a kidnap charge, two sexual violation charges, four assault charges, reckless driving, failing to stop for police, and driving while his licence was suspended. He has entered no pleas.

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File image. © Andrew Bardwell

An offender deported from Australia for assault has now been jailed for seven years four months for the gunpoint $6000 robbery of a woman bar manager in Hornby.

Eugene Ielua pleaded not guilty and took the case to trial in the Christchurch District Court, but a jury found him guilty of the September 2013 robbery of the Snafu bar.

Since then, 29-year-old Ielua has admitted his involvement and has written a letter of apology to the victim. She was described as “poised and composed” when she gave her evidence at trial but has told of suffering long term psychological harm.

Judge Paul Kellar ordered Ielua to pay her $1000 as emotional harm reparations when he eventually gets out of jail and gets a job.

Crown prosecutor Claire Boshier said that Ielua, armed with a pistol, had terrified the victim to ensure her compliance and he should get little credit for his apology and remorse because it had come after the trial.

Defence counsel Baden Meyer called for a lower sentence and said a non-parole term was not appropriate. He said Ielua was now “acutely aware” of the effects of his offending on the victim.

Two men carried out the robbery as the bar was closing at 10pm on September 1, 2013. The other robber has never been identified.

Judge Kellar agreed not to impose a non-parole term and allowed a six-month reduction for Ielua’s “genuine remorse”. He said the case against him had been overwhelming.

The two men were disguised, and wearing heavy clothing to hide their stature. CCTV footage showed them climbing a fence from Denton Park before the robbery.

The bar was closed while the woman manager counted the takings and the pokie machine money, when they smashed a window with a tomahawk and entered the bar.

Ielua was holding a pistol similar to a police-issue Glock. The pistol has never been found and it is not known if it was real, or loaded. The woman told the trial she had no recollection of it being pointed at her, but security camera footage shows that it was.

Ielua told her: “Give me what I want, and I won’t do anything to hurt you.”

About $6000 was put into a bag, and the woman was then told to take the robbers to the safes. The safe doors were ajar and they were empty, but the men told her to open the drawers inside. She did not have the key for that.

They then shut her in the chiller and closed the door and told her to remain. She stayed for a few minutes and then called the police.

Ielua had pleaded guilty to taking a bank card from a man he was staying with, and attempting to use it to make withdrawals seven times. Only one withdrawal was successful.

Judge Kellar said he was assessed as a medium-to-high risk of further offending.

About the time of the robbery, he had reported struggling financially and being unmotivated to find work. He had found himself in New Zealand with little support after being deported from Australia for an assault conviction. He had left his wife and child behind in Australia at that time, but they had since moved to Auckland.

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