EVENTS in Te Kūiti District Court this week.
Rural burglar in custody A YOUNG man who burgled the same Rangitoto dairy farm three times in less than a month has been remanded in custody until his sentencing next month. Tahi Hetet-Ngarongo last week pleaded guilty to three charges of burglary. According to the police summary of facts, the 19-year-old stole a Polaris side-by-side motorbike from a shed about 1.5km from the road in the early hours of September 12. The victim was awake and getting ready for work when he saw the Polaris, valued at $22,000, and another vehicle driving down the tanker track. Security footage showed the Polaris being driven down the main street of Te Kūiti at about 5.30am the same day. It was found by police a few hours later on Walker Rd, Te Kūiti. The following night Hetet-Ngarongo returned to the same dairy farm and broke the lock to the farm petrol tank, resulting in 95 litres of fuel being taken or spilled on the ground. Various tools were taken from sheds on the property which, combined with the fuel, were valued at $2600. Hetet-Ngarongo and an unknown associate targeted the fuel tank again this month on October 3, but due to security modifications were not able to break the lock. After walking through a shed and looking at parked motorbikes that did not have keys in them, Hetet-Ngarongo and his associate left the address empty-handed. Police prosecutor Baden Hilton said he was concerned at the potential for Hetet-Ngarongo to reoffend if he was granted bail, given this offending was “hot on the heels” of another burglary for which he was sentenced to intensive supervision for this year. Judge John Mcdonald said Hetet-Ngarongo’s sentencing date in mid-November was not far away so he did not see a reason to grant bail and remanded him in custody.
Sentence for assault TE KŪITI man Jayden Green was sentenced to 40 hours community work for assaulting a female friend his partner had been fighting with. Green pleaded guilty to the charge of male assaults female and his lawyer Joseph Hamblett noted he had no history of this type of offending.
Nominal dates set DUE to an absence of judge alone trial dates in Te Kūiti District Court’s calendar, people wanting to defend themselves at trial in front of a judge are put off to nominal court dates for registrars to then see if any trial dates have become available. Those who were put off to a nominal date in December include Joanne Joannie Velmaine Anderson, who has denied charges of assaulting a person with a blunt instrument and wilful damage; Elisha Campbell, who has pleaded not guilty to burglary; Thomas John Ormsby, who maintains his innocence in a raft of charges relating to burglary and drugs, and a man whom King Country News has chosen not name due to the nature of his charge being male does indecent act with a young person.
