A man shot in the face by police in a Woolston firearms incident in February has admitted six charges and is in custody for sentencing.

Twenty-four-year-old Murray James Allan, of Parklands, was remanded in custody for sentencing on August 10 by Judge Bridget Mackintosh in the Christchurch District Court today.

Allan admitted in an interview with police that he was an idiot for pulling a gun, which turned out to be a blank firing pistol. Police found afterwards that the pistol contained a blank round as well as a live round.

He admitted charges of assault with a weapon, unlawful possession of an imitation firearm and ammunition, and three charges of dishonestly using stolen cheques.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Glenn Pascoe said two officers were patrolling in Woolston about 2am on February 4, looking for a suicidal man. They spoke to two men they saw in a parked car.

One of the officers believed he saw a cannabis pipe in the car and told the men the car would be searched. He also requested backup because he recognised Allan.

Police intelligence had previously advised that Allan was believed to have a firearm.

The officers told the men to keep their hands up, and in sight.

A third officer then arrived and parked his patrol car in front of the vehicle.

They then saw Allan reach into a backpack in the car’s footwell and remove a pistol.

“He directed the pistol in the direction of one of the constables,” said Sergeant Pascoe.

The third constable to arrive immediately fired and hit Allan on the right side of his face.

Once he was no longer seen as a threat, the police provided first aid and called for an ambulance which transported him to Christchurch Hospital.

When the car was examined late that day, a blank firing pistol was found on the passenger side of the dashboard. It contained two rounds in the magazine – one a blank round, but the other a 9mm live round.

None of the police were injured.

When he was interviewed, Allan told police: “I’m a f—-n idiot aren’t I? I pulled a gun on the cops. I tried to gap it so I pulled a gun on the cops.”

“Gap it” means to run from the scene of a crime.

Defence counsel Serina Bailey said Allan acknowledged his need for drug rehabilitation, and Judge Mackintosh ordered an assessment for alcohol and drug rehabilitation ahead of his sentencing.

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While on remand in custody for murder, an 18-year-old punched a prison officer twice in the head in an incident at the Christchurch Men’s Prison.

Taniela Kotoitoga Daven Tiako Waitokia was found guilty of the murder of 87-year-old Harold Richardson from Upper Riccarton in August 2015, and today pleaded guilty to assault with intent to injure the Corrections officer.

The officer fell to the ground when he was hit, and at the murder trial soon after in November Waitokia had to sit in court in shackles.

Judge Paul Kellar said the victim had been punched in his mouth and left temple, and an alleged co-offender then kicked him.

The victim impact report said he suffered minor injuries with a bruise to his left torso and minor concussion.

Judge Kellar said it was an assault on a prison officer in a vulnerable position.

Waitokia is serving a life sentence for the murder, and Judge Kellar sentenced him to a concurrent sentence of 12 months’ jail for the attack.

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The disorganisation and chaos of Richard Graham’s life has reached the limits of a judge’s patience, and the 28-year-old has now farewelled his children for a few months.

“Give the kids a hug,” he called to his partner in the public seats at the Christchurch District Court as he was led away to the cells.

He had been given a seven-month jail term that arises from driving while disqualified.

Graham’s defence counsel, Steve Hembrow, told the court: “The facts of life for Richard Graham is that he is disorganised. His life is in chaos.”

He asked for the sentencing to be adjourned to allow Graham a chance to have another address checked out for home detention. His mother had offered to move out of her flat so that Graham could live there.

Judge Tom Gilbert immediately declined that suggestion, and the sentencing carried on.

The judge detailed the saga that had led to the jail term for the father-of-two, who has three previous convictions for driving while disqualified or suspended, and five for driving while prohibited.

He has a cannabis conviction from 2007, which Graham said was a time of high stress and anxiety. He gave up all cannabis use, because he found it made his anxiety worse.

He has also clocked up 30 or 40 driving infringements offences over the last few years.

His undoing began on August 18, when he was caught driving while disqualified.

He had to come along to court for an appearance on that charge on October 30 but he found his ride had fallen through.

Unbelievably, said Judge Gilbert, he drove to court and was caught again and a second charge was laid. He pleaded guilty.

A pre-sentence report was ordered on those two charges but Graham failed to turn up for his Community Probation interview.

Because of that, the sentencing on December 13 could not go ahead and he was remanded in custody to make sure the interview happened.

Six days later, he was granted compassionate leave from prison to attend a funeral.

He did not attend the funeral but absconded and went on the run until January 9.

He then explained that he had been threatened by other inmates and told that if he did not come back to prison with contraband hidden inside his body, he would get a beating.

The judge remanded him in custody but he was released on bail two weeks later to get an address for home detention and to get his restricted licence sorted.

The sentencing could not go ahead on March 10, to give him still more time to sort his address and his licence.

On May 24, he was arrested yet again for driving outside the limits of his licence.

He turned up on Friday for yet another attempt at sentencing, but still nothing had been done. His latest pre-sentence report recommended imprisonment.

Judge Gilbert, his patience exhausted, told Graham: “The potential plans I had for you have been thwarted in every way. I have given you every opportunity to sort things out, but you don’t seem to follow through. I was trying to give you a way out.”

He imposed jail terms totalling seven months, and a year’s disqualification from driving.

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A 24-year-old labourer has been charged with the aggravated robbery of a woman on Sheldon Street, Woolston, at the weekend.

On June 18, early in the morning, Jamal John Rangi Apataria Couling was allegedly with two 15-year-old co-offenders when a woman inside a car was robbed, and hurt in the incident.

Couling was charged with robbing the woman of cash while armed with an axe.

Today Couling was processed in the Christchurch Youth Court as the alleged co-offenders were appearing there, and was remanded on bail to appear in court again on July 11.

The two younger alleged offenders were dealt with through the Youth Court system where they have automatic name suppression.

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Burglar Michael Taui Wetere sprang into action in the hour after the Kaikoura earthquake while police were busy doing tsunami evacuations in Christchurch’s eastern suburbs.

While the police were busy in the coastal suburbs early on November 14, 35-year-old Wetere did three burglaries on the other side of town.

The unemployed Woolston man admitted 11 charges at the Christchurch District Court today: eight burglaries, receiving stolen property, possession of tools for committing burglaries, and unlawfully taking a car that was used in some of the burglaries.

The police and Crown then released summaries of facts which show that even an inept burglar like Wetere can clock up losses and damage totalling $61,490 for Christchurch householders and businesses.

His career shortcomings include:

[] Injuring himself at two burglary scenes and leaving blood spots that the police then analysed and got his DNA.

[] Throwing away a cigarette packet with his fingerprints on it at another burglary scene.

[] Leaving his fingerprints behind at two other break-ins.

Wetere has been in custody since he was picked up in early February, the day after the burglary of a dairy on Yaldhurst Road. He was found with stolen property including World War 2 soldier’s dogtags taken in a December burglary in Avonhead.

He was also found with walkie-talkie radios, a face mask, a pair of black gloves, and a jemmy bar.

Judge Peter Rollo today remanded him in custody again for sentencing on August 8. He asked for a pre-sentence report, and a reparation report on the losses, and referred the case for a possible restorative justice meeting with the victims.

Judge Rollo accepted defence counsel Margaret Smyth’s request not to record convictions yet, so that Wetere will not be shifted to another prison wing straight away. That would put an end to his studies for NCEA, an alcohol and drug course, and driving classes.

The Crown said Wetere’s blood was found on a curtain next to a window where a burglar broke into a house in Sails Street, Papanui, in October 1, 2015. Property worth $30,160 was taken.

On October 18, 2015, a house in Hoani Street, Papanui, was burgled when the back door was smashed open. Property worth $15,941 was taken, but Wetere left behind a cigarette packet with his fingerprints on it.

A Subaru station wagon was taken from a home in Bishopdale on the evening of November 13, 2016 – just hours before the Kaikoura earthquake which struck at 12.03am on November 14.

Seven minutes after the quake, the station wagon was used by two offenders who broke into a dairy in Waltham. The were disturbed by security guards at Lancaster Park nearby, and ran off and got into the vehicle. The guard got the registration number. One of the burglars dropped a till and cigarettes as they fled.

At 12.50am, burglars broke into a service station on Port Hills Road and began breaking into the cigarettes cabinet. They had to flee empty handed when a security smoke cannon filled the shop with smoke, stopping them seeing anything. The same car was seen there.

At 1am, the doors of a dairy in Huntsbury were kicked in and two burglars took cigarettes and tobacco worth $7000. Wetere’s fingerprints were found on a drawer inside the cigarette cabinet.

A house in Merivale was burgled in December or early January, and Wetere’s fingerprints were found on a roof flashing, from when he climbed onto the balcony.

He left more blood spots on the cigarette cabinet at the scene of a dairy break-in at Bryndwr on the night of January 6 to 7, 2017.

Wetere originally denied the charges, but changed his pleas to guilty at a case review hearing today.

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A “one-man crime wave” who told the court prison had saved his life, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years’ jail for dishonesty charges involving losses of $49,000.

David Ronald Cribb, a 24-year-old Halswell painter, was found unconscious in one of the cars he had unlawfully taken, and went to Christchurch Hospital.

Defence counsel Carol Morgan said Cribb was grateful he was found, and believed prison had saved his life. She said he was motivated to address his addiction issues, after the path of addiction – first on synthetic drugs, then harder drugs – took his job and income from him.

Cribb wanted to have a restorative justice meeting with the victims of his offending, and 30 letters were sent out, but no-one responded to them, his Christchurch District Court sentencing was told.

Judge Peter Rollo said the 43 dishonesty offences occurred over five months in 2016, and Cribb was a one-man crime wave trying to pay for his drug addiction.

Cribb’s pre-sentence report said he was usually paying between $400 and $500 a week, but sometimes up to $1000 a week, for the drugs.

He went out at night and found unlocked cars, and unlocked builders’ vans, and took GPS units, clothing, tools, equipment, and handbags, then sold the items through pawn brokers.

He used a Pay-wave card he had stolen for tobacco, food, and fuel at service stations.

Judge Rollo said Cribb had no assets, and the uncertainty of his future meant reparation of $49,000 was completely unrealistic and doomed to fail.

He said some of the offending was an intrusion on private property, and victims suffered unrecoverable loss.

He was sentenced for 38 theft from car charges, unlawfully taking a car, receiving, and three obtaining by deception charges.

He was assessed as a low risk of harm to others, but a high risk of re-offending if he did not do rehabilitation courses.

Judge Rollo sentenced him to two years’ three months’ prison, and then added another three months to the sentence and remitted his previous fines of $11,000, so that when he is released from prison he would be debt-free.

He said it would be up to the parole board to set Cribb’s release conditions, which could include a stay at Odyssey House for rehabilitation, which was recommended by his pre-sentence report writer.

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A Youth Court judge has gone to the Christchurch Central Police Station to see the “barren and desolate” cell where a 14-year-old charged with robbery has been held for days.

Judge Jane McMeeken said it was “outrageous” that he should continue to be held in a police cell since his arrest at the weekend because there were no youth justice beds available for him.

She has put the Ministry of Social Welfare on notice that the youth will be bailed on Thursday morning at the Youth Court sitting, unless proper accommodation can be found.

The boy is one of about 11 young people around in the country who are in police cells because there are no youth justice residence beds available.

The boy was back in the Youth Court today for a third time being remanded by Judge McMeeken with the police opposing bail. He first appeared on Monday morning on charges of aggravated robbery and unlawfully taking a car.

The judge spoke to him on Tuesday about what he was doing all day in the cell, what food he was eating, and whether he could take a shower.

She went to see him in the police cells on Tuesday afternoon.

“I make absolutely no criticism at all of the police. In m view they are doing all that they can to ensure that he is properly cared for while he is in their custody.

“The stark reality, however, is that the police cells in Christchurch are not made for people to be held in for days at a time. They have certainly not been made to hold young people.”

The cell was barren and desolate, she said. There is nothing in it at all apart from a mattress on a raised platform and toilet facilities. There is no natural light, no exercise yard, no specially designed visitors’ rooms, or a day room.

“It is inappropriate by any measure that he be detained in a police cell,” she said.

The youth had been found to be in need of care and protection. “In those circumstances it is outrageous that he should continue to be held in a police cell.”

He needed monitoring and assistance but none of that could be provided while he was being held in a police cell.

She also made no criticism of the very hard working social workers. It was not their fault or responsibility that there was no residence available. But she had reached the point where it was untenable that the youth could be held any longer in a police cell.

The “put the Ministry on notice” that she considered he would have to be bailed on Thursday. By then, she expected the Ministry of Social Welfare to have some option for him.

Because of the large number of young people awaiting beds, if the youth was not bailed he may stay in the police cells for several more days, she said.

Other judges have raised similar concerns over the past year, with one saying that the continued detention of a boy in these circumstances breached the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

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A 14-year-old charged with robbery has been released on supported bail after four days in the Christchurch police cells but two other youths charged with an overnight ram-raid are spending another night in the cells.

There are no beds available in Youth Justice facilities, and yesterday there were 11 young people being held in police custody around the country.

The situation hasn’t improved today and there was even more pressure in Christchurch after the new arrests overnight.

Two 16-year-olds were arrested after a police chase said to have involved driving through give way signs and red lights after an alleged ram-raid on a service station, and Youth Court Judge Jane McMeeken refused both of them bail today.

Both will return to the Youth Court sitting at 9.30am on Friday. “We will see if there are any bail options then,” the judge told one of them.

She told the other one: “It doesn’t look like the situation is going to change in the next day or two, and then we have got the weekend.”

Judge McMeeken effectively put the social welfare authorities on notice on Wednesday, that they must find accommodation for the youth facing the robbery charge, because she would not keep remanding him in custody in a “barren and desolate” police cell.

Overnight, a social worker put forward a plan for him to be released on supported bail to live with his father and grandfather, with the involvement of the Youth Cultural Development organisation and a mentoring organisation that will take him out for activities. Another organisation may work with the whole family unit.

The social worker said: “We have a good chance, if we can put a ‘ring’ around him and his family, and work cohesively, of getting him where he needs to be.”

The youth is not seen as suitable for mainstream schooling and an alternative will have to be arranged. He told the court he had not been to school for the past two years, but he can read and write, and he is good at mathematics.

Releasing him on bail, Judge McMeeken said she saw him as “an incredibly vulnerable young man” who had caused harm to the community.

Police opposed his release on bail, but the prosecutor accepted there was no alternative after several days in custody in the police cells because no suitable Youth Justice bed could be found.

Judge McMeeken said she was worried about comments in the youth’s reports that he saw crime as a good way to get money.

“If I bail you, are you going to behave yourself?” the judge asked.

“A hundred percent,” the youth replied.

“You can do this?” the judge asked.

“Yes,” the youth replied again.

She remanded another youth in custody in the police cells after allegations that he had been the driver in a ram-raid and police chase overnight. She was told that 16-year-old had lost a job that had been arranged for him, had been discharged from a rehabilitation programme, and had absconded during an interview for a training course. He admitted he was “out of it all the time” on cannabis.

She kept a second 16-year-old in custody in the cells because she said she had “no confidence you won’t get into further trouble”, after his arrest in the ram-raid incident. He was already on a supervision sentence and had had not turned up to court on Tuesday as required.

“I don’t lock up young people,” she told him. “You lock yourself up.”

Two other youths who had been arrested overnight were released on supported bail.

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Name suppression has lifted on a 16-year-old youth charged with the murder of a man who was found injured in a carpark at Sumner in March.

He is Moses Eli Hurrell, who has pleaded not guilty to a charge of murdering Pierclaudio Raviola on March 23.

Hurrell originally faced the charge of murder at an appearance in the Youth Court after Mr Raviola died in hospital two days after he was found badly injured outside the Sumner Surf Lifesaving Club.

Youth Court provides automatic suppression but the case has since been transferred to the High Court where Hurrell had a scheduled case review hearing with two alleged co-offenders before Justice Rachel Dunningham today.

Once a case moves to an adult jurisdiction such as the High Court, the suppression must be argued and renewed at each appearance.

Two of the three charged appeared by video-link in Christchurch’s main High Court, while Hurrell did not appear. He was represented by defence counsel Tony Garrett who said that Hurrell was also pleading not guilty to a burglary charge, and the name suppression order was not being renewed.

Cyle Robert Jetson, 20, and Deborah Jean Tihema, 38, are also charged with the murder and pleaded not guilty in April.

They appeared by video-link and all three were remanded in custody to a pre-trial call-over in the High Court on August 18.

Crown prosecutor Chris Lange told Justice Dunningham February 28 was being considered as a possible date for the murder trial.

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Acute Finance Ltd has been fined for overcharging its consumer finance customers, but the Commerce Commission has not been able to find any victims who want to speak out.

The Christchurch District Court sentencing, at which the company was fined $22,000, went ahead without any victim impact statements before the court.

“No-one feels victimised by this,” Commerce Commission prosecutor, Sam Lowery acknowledged before Judge Tom Gilbert at the sentencing for four representative breaches of the Consumer Finance Act.

Defence counsel Phil Shamy said it was “an issue of inadvertence – they just didn’t turn their mind to it”. But there was a sense of loyalty among the customers. “They don’t think they have suffered any harm.”

The charges arose because of a hidden charge in the contracts, for the repayment waiver fee which covered customers if they died, became disabled, or were made redundant. Acute Finance charged for the cover, which cost only about a third of that amount. That generated a profit which was prohibited by the Act.

The company pleaded guilty on the day before a scheduled trial, to the charges of having an unreasonable credit fee or default fee in its consumer credit contract.

The Commerce Commission examined a sample of 67 contracts from 2014 and found there was overcharging of an average of $149 per contract – a total of about $10,000 for the year.

Mr Shamy said the company had repaid those fees and was considering whether it had the data available to refund others.

Judge Tom Gilbert said: “It is a matter for their corporate and individual consciences.” He regarded it as careless offending, in a highly regulated industry.

Mr Lowery said the commission accepted it was not deliberate offending. The company had not taken legal advice about the practice and it had gone on for years.

Judge Gilbert said the company dealt with loans ranging from $300 to $5000 for terms of up to three years. Its customers were mostly low income individuals. He said it was submitted that the company were “reasonable lenders and don’t fall into the category that some might describe as ‘loan sharks’.”

He noted that they had co-operated with the Commerce Commission investigation, had no previous convictions, and refunds had been paid on the 67 loans referred to in the charges.

He said he had read testimonials describing the sole director and only employee, Suzanne Harper, as “a decent person”.

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A 19-year old man has been remanded in custody after a cross-city police chase at the weekend.

Ethan Stuart Batt, of Woolston, faced five charges when he appeared before Judge Raoul Neave in the Christchurch District Court today.

He entered no pleas and made no bail application. Judge Neave remanded him in custody to July 17, for an appearance by video-link from the prison.

Duty lawyer David Bunce said a bail application may be made on that day.

Batt appeared on charges of unlawfully taking a $10,000 Nissan Safari, reckless driving on Moorhouse Avenue, failing to stop for the police while driving dangerously, and resisting a police officer.

Police allege those offences happened on Sunday in a chase that began about 3am in the Sydenham-Waltham area, and passed through the city and on to Papanui. They said the four-wheel-drive was driven on its rims after road spikes were used to burst its tyres.

Batt faces a further charge of unlawfully taking a car in Timaru on June 13.

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A 24-year-old Christchurch man must pay $3000 to two rivals he bashed unconscious with one punch each in an all-in New Year brawl at a Queenstown mall.

Thomas Taylor Allison was also ordered to do 200 hours of community work by Christchurch District Court Judge Brian Callaghan at his sentencing on two unusual charges.

Queenstown police charged Allison, and a second offender who was dealt with in Southland, with injuring in circumstances where if death had occurred he would have been guilty of manslaughter.

The other offender, Daniel Francis Oliver, 24, was earlier sentenced to 275 hours of community work, a year on supervision, and $3000 in emotional harm reparations.

Allison’s defence counsel Allister Davis said his client deserved a lighter community work sentence because he was a first offender while Oliver had previous convictions in 2015 for assault and injuring.

The mall melee took place on December 29, 2015, when two groups confronted each other in central Queenstown.

He said Allison had been in Queenstown with his friends when there had been an altercation with another group. The confrontation had stopped but had started up later when the other group advanced on Allison and his friends, who were out-numbered.

The charges were originally going to be defended on the basis of self-defence but after viewing the video of the incident it was clear that self-defence was not tenable, he said. “The defence was disproportionate to the threat.”

Allison admitted felling two rivals with one punch each. “They must have been good punches,” said Mr Davis, because they left both men lying unconscious in the mall.

Judge Callaghan said he accepted that Allison was a first offender who might not have been the instigator of the confrontation.

Both victims had been taken to hospital but had not needed any long term medical care.

Allison was “pro-social” and came from a stable and supportive family and background.

He imposed the 200-hour community work sentence, with an emotional harm payment of $1500 to each victim. “I don’t see the need for supervision,” said the judge.

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File image. © Andrew Bardwell

A 21-year-old sex offender with “complex psychological needs” has been sent to prison because the treatment options are limited.

The jail term imposed on Steve Jason Pratley was too short for him to do the Kia Marama programme for sex offenders in prison.

Christchurch District Court Judge David Saunders also said he believed Pratley would not be seen as qualifying for urgent assistance.

He recommended that the prison authorities arrange for Pratley to continue to receive counselling and some programmes related to his offending during his time in custody.

He jailed Pratley for 15 months with special conditions to continue with treatment and counselling as directed by Community Probation after his release.

He refused an application by defence counsel Josh Lucas to have home detention considered during the sentence if a suitable address became available.

Mr Lucas said a rehabilitative sentence had been considered for Pratley, while he was on bail, but since then he had ended up in custody because of a bail breach. He believed treatment prospects were now “stuck”.

“This man has complex needs, which need to be addressed in rehabilitation,” he said.

Sending him to jail could result in him being released on parole for a time before he could get into a STOP programme for sex offenders, he said.

Pratley had admitted charges of indecent assault, doing an indecent act to insult or offend, and criminal harassment.

The court was told that outside a Christchurch restaurant, he approached a woman he knew and tried to kiss her and push his body against her. She pushed him away. Inside the restaurant he put his hand underneath her dress as they sat at a table.

While he was on bail on that indecent assault charge, a 67-year-old woman saw him staring at her over a fence, and then masturbating while he stood naked on top of his bed, at his address, with the lights on. Police said Pratley’s actions caused the woman to fear for her safety.

Judge Saunders delivered a first strike warning under the system that imposes heavier sentences on repeat offenders.

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A taser-wielding dairy raider – caught when the Opawa dairy owner and his wife fought back – can look forward to release from prison probably in 2021.

Edward Paul Paterson’s methamphetamine-assisted decision to get cigarettes and not pay for them has been disastrous.

He went to the Opawa Discounter store in Opawa Road about 7.50am on July 30, 2016, wearing a balaclava and armed with a taser torch which could make a loud crackle and incapacitate a victim.

Things went wrong as he tried to get cigarettes from the cabinet, when dairy owner Kamlesh Patel saw him, began to struggle with him and called his wife.

Paterson, 25, used the taser on Mr Patel several times but it had no effect through his leather jacket.

When Neeta Patel joined in, he used the shock device on her arm causing “violent pain”.

Mr Patel pulled the balaclava partly off in the struggle, exposing Paterson’s face. When he ran from the store empty handed to his car parked 30m away, they took his registration number.

His car was stopped by police nearby in Tunnel Road. The police found firearms, ammunition, and a pipe for smoking methamphetamine in the car.

It turned out, Paterson was on parole from a five-year sentence imposed in 2013 for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, threatening to kill, and assault.

That meant he was a first strike offender and he was immediately recalled to serve another 18 months of that sentence.

He will be due to finish that sentence in February next year, when the latest sentence for armed burglary of the diary, imposed by Christchurch District Court Judge Gary MacAskill today, will kick in.

With additional cumulative terms for the weapons offences, it amounts to another three years five months.

And because it is now a second strike offence – because of his earlier warning – Paterson has to serve all the armed burglary time without parole or early release.

Judge MacAskill said the pre-sentence report identified Paterson’s issues as drug addiction, anti-social lifestyle and attitude, and a sense of entitlement.

He was seen as a high risk reoffender because of his willingness to use violence.

He had been released on parole in April 2016, and had worked as a chef, but gave up the job because he was making so much money selling methamphetamine. He had accepted the firearms as payment for drugs, and he carried the taser at all times “for protection”.

He had been taking methamphetamine at the time of the dairy raid, when he wanted cigarettes but decided not to pay for them. He said he was sorry for the distress he caused the victims.

Judge MacAskill said: “Robberies of shops and dairies are prevalent in the community, often for very little gain for the offenders.”

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A company director has pleaded not guilty to a further seven sex charges involving two more victims, laid in the Christchurch District Court.

John Michael Condon, 61, from Lansdowne in the Selwyn District, previously pleaded not guilty to 16 sex charges involving eight girls, and appeared at a pre-trial conference today.

His defence counsel, Craig Ruane, told Judge Raoul Neave that the seven new charges had been issued.

All 23 charges allege the offending occurred between 1999 to 2014, and include rape, indecent assaults on underaged girls, sexual violation of underaged girls, and paying for sex with under-aged girls.

Judge Neave remanded Condon in custody to a further pre-trial conference on August 11.

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A teenager has promised to pay more than $44,000 for the damage he did in a drink-driving incident in Nelson on Boxing Day.

Dante Jack Rolleston, 18, crashed into the Tahunanui Store in Nelson in the early hours of the morning, and took out a roof support, collapsed part of the store’s roof, and smashed a hole in the side of the building.

He had been driving in the rain, but when he braked to make a turn he skidded through an intersection and crashed into the store.

He picked up the car’s broken bodywork, threw it into the car, and drove off.

Police later found him at a camping ground and breath tested him. He had a level of 534mcg of alcohol to a litre of breath, the legal limit is 250mcg.

Christchurch District Court Judge Tony Couch said he was sentencing Rolleston on a charge of dangerous driving and driving with excess breath alcohol.

He sentenced him to 80 hours community work, disqualified him from driving for eight months, and ordered the reparation payment of $44,703.

Rolleston, who was representing himself, said he would pay the reparation off at $50 per week.

Rolleston pleaded guilty in March and his sentencing was put off to now so that he could spend three months at sea working on a fishing boat, making money to pay for the damage he did.

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The company that was the victim of Katrina Leigh Leoni’s thefts had difficulty accepting that her last minute reparation arrangements showed her remorse.

Forty-two-year-old Leoni produced a $100,000 bank cheque which was handed to company representatives minutes before her Christchurch District Court sentencing was due to go ahead.

Crown prosecutor Karyn South said the company had difficulty accepting that after the two years since the offending came to light, the reparation offer had only been made minutes before sentencing.

She said that the company did not see why the remaining $33,000 of reparation could not be paid straight away when Leoni still owned a horse truck worth $70,000.

Defence counsel Anselm Williams said: “Steps are being taken in that respect, but they aren’t able to be taken immediately.”

Judge David Saunders set October 2 as the deadline for the remaining money to be paid to the concrete company involved in the Christchurch rebuild.

Leoni pleaded guilty this year to three representative charges of theft by a person in a special relationship, from when she was employed as a receptionist and office administrator at the firm from 2012 to 2015.

He said that Leoni had no previous convictions, but there had been a pre-trial application by the Crown to admit evidence about her actions when she had previously been employed handling money.

There was comment in the rebuild firm’s victim impact statement that staff had seen her “flaunting what she had achieved”, and she had shown little remorse even after she was caught.

She had initially tried to shift the blame, but had eventually accepted responsibility.

Judge Saunders sentenced her to 11 months of home detention, and 200 hours of community work so that she could “put something back into the community”.

He imposed special conditions with an order that Leoni is to undertake assessment, counselling, and treatment as directed, and is not to take undertake employment or voluntary work involving handling money or accounting systems without permission.

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The night before a planned wedding, the bride went hunting for the groom, armed with a knife and accompanied by Bandidos gang associates.

The group never found the groom that night, but now the bride, Stephanie Jane McGrath, 27, has pleaded guilty to wounding two men and assaulting a woman who were injured as the group raided a housebus.

Nicholas Andrew Hanson, 31, a Bandidos gang prospect, has admitted that he was the person who stabbed two men and assaulted the woman victim.

He pleaded guilty in the Christchurch District Court 12 days ago to charges of wounding the two men with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and assaulting the woman. McGrath pleaded guilty to the same joint charges, admitting that she had instigated the incident.

Both of them are now remanded in custody for sentencing, but no date has yet been set.

Two men the Crown alleges formed the rest of the group that carried out the attacks on August 30, 2015 – Alvin Ritesh Kumar, a 34-year-old factory hand from Woolston, and Jesse James Winter, 29 – went on trial before Judge Stephen O’Driscoll and a jury in the Christchurch District Court today.

They deny the same three charges at a three-week trial where the Crown may call up to 30 witnesses.

Richard Maze appears as defence counsel for Kumar, and Andrew Bailey and Kiran Paima appear for Winter. Claire Boshier and Donald Matthews appear for the Crown.

Opening the case for the Crown, Mr Matthews told the jury that McGrath “had a grievance” with the groom on the night before they were due to be married. When police searched her property afterwards, they found the marriage licence, for a wedding that was to take place next day. The couple had a “volatile relationship” and some issues arose on August 30, 2015.

He said McGrath knew where the groom had been that day – at a birthday celebration at a housebus in Johns Road – and the group of four was brought together that evening and went there in McGrath’s car.

They knocked on the door and asked for the groom, and after being told he was not there, the man at the door was slashed in the face by Hanson and then stabbed several times. He then stabbed the second man in the head and the other two members of the group – the Crown says it was Kumar and Winter – punched and kicked him.

Hanson kicked the woman to the ground twice when she tried to intervene, and she received a cut to the hand as she tried to protect herself.

As the group left, they were still threatening the groom. They were heard saying that he was “finished” and he was going to die.

The Crown says text messages show the group being assembled that evening. A person living nearby took the number of the car as it left, and police found it at McGrath’s address in Hornby soon after.

It says Hanson and Winter had already left on foot, but Kumar was linked because he was found in the car with McGrath, and blood from the victims was found on his jeans. He also fitted the description given by witnesses of a man of Indian ethnicity, small stature, wearing a blue striped top.

Winter was linked by text messaging, and by tracing his cellphone to the area of the property. He allegedly sent texts to his girlfriend saying he was going “on a mish” (mission), and trying to have someone say he was staying somewhere else that night “if the feds come calling”.

Mr Matthews said the Crown said the two were parties to the group’s “common purpose” in planning and carrying out the attack.

“If you make a plan to seriously assault someone, arm yoursleves, and travel as a group late at night for a surprise attack, if someone gets hurt in the process, that is a logical outcome of the common plan,” he said.

In explanation, Kumar told police he was on a Tinder date with McGrath. Winter said someone else must have had his phone.

For Kumar, Mr Maze said the key issue was what was going on in Kumar’s mind at the relevant time. “One of the tricky things about this trial is that you are going to hear an awful lot of evidence about things that took place when he simply wasn’t there. Keep an open mind,” he said.

The trial is continuing.

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A Christchurch woman who sneaked a tiny red-eared slider turtle into New Zealand from China now faces sentencing for a breach of the Biosecurity Act.

The turtle is listed as one of the world’s 100 worst invasive species.

The turtle had been given to 43-year-old Qiang Wei Luo’s six-year-old son on a visit to family in China.

Luo knew it could not be brought into New Zealand but she decided to bring it in when her son became upset.

The Waltham woman, who is a New Zealand permanent resident who holds a Chinese passport, pleaded guilty in the Christchurch District Court yesterday to a charge of possessing unauthorised goods under the Biosecurity Act.

The Ministry of Primary Industries told Judge Tony Couch that New Zealand was one of the few countries that did not have an established wild population of red-eared slider turtles.

The species was readily available in New Zealand through pet stores and over the internet. Many were kept as pets but the country did have non-self-perpetuating populations of wild turtles.

Their impact was largely unknown, but they could impact on aquatic plants, insects, small fish, and ground nesting birds.

The turtle is seen as a medium category pest. Three regional councils in Auckland, Waikato, and Wellington, control the turtles in their pest management plans. The turtles are absolutely prohibited imports.

While Luo was visiting her parents in China in December, her mother bought two turtles and gave one to her son.

Luo knew that it could not be brought into New Zealand but after her son became upset she put it in a container in her son’s backpack. When she was interviewed later, she said she hoped the turtle would be found at the border so it would be someone else, and not her, taking the turtle from her son.

She did not mention the turtle when questioned as she arrived in New Zealand, and it was not found when their bags were x-rayed. The turtle was about the size of a thumb-nail.

She took the turtle home to Christchurch where it was found on February 1 when ministry officials arrived for an inspection. The turtle was seized and humanely euthanised by a veterinarian.

The husband and wife fully co-operated with the investigation and showed remorse.

The ministry is asking for $61 reparations – the cost of euthanising the turtle.

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A woman has admitted three raids on the luggage carousel at Christchurch Airport, taking bags and contents worth about $4700.

Christchurch District Court Judge David Saunders ordered a report on Cerise Wairaku Duncan’s ability to pay for the losses when he remanded her on bail for sentencing in September.

He remitted $1500 of her existing unpaid fines straight away and imposed 80 hours of community work instead.

He also indicated that at her September 6 sentencing, she was likely to be considered for either supervision or community detention, as well as more community work.

Duncan, a 28-year-old Aranui woman, pleaded guilty to the three thefts at the airport, as well as a theft of headphones from The Warehouse at Eastgate, and a breach of bail.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Grant Neal said Duncan was at the airport’s domestic terminal on November 18, about 2.40pm.

She went to the very end of the conveyor belt carrying the luggage and took a backpack off the carousel.

She carried it out to her car in the carpark where she went through the contents – a laptop computer, Swiss army knife, running shoes, and outdoor clothing, worth a total of $1200.

She then went back inside and picked a sports bag off the same carousel. It contained prescription medicine, a torch, gift, and clothing worth a total of $499.

The third raid on the same carousel involved her taking a suitcase which she wheeled to her car. It contained three pairs of shoes, a mountain jacket, suit jacket, shirts, and running clothing. The total value was $3000.

Sergeant Neal said Duncan told police she took the luggage because she had no money to get out of the airport carpark, and she sold the valuable items and discarded the clothing.

Defence counsel Nicola Hansen said Duncan had no previous convictions.

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