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A bad few months
WHAT started as a driver’s licence suspension because of demerit points spiralled for Antonio Francis Shirtcliffe, who gained several driving-related convictions in just a few months.
But things are looking up for the young man – who was 19 years old at the time of his offending – because Judge Kim Saunders decided last week not to disqualify him again when he appeared in the Te Kūiti District Court last week.
Shirtcliffe was first suspended from driving in August last year for three months.
He was caught behind the wheel by police during a routine stop on October 7.
Less than two weeks later, he was disqualified from driving for six months for drink driving.
Five days after that he was pulled over by police for using his cell phone while driving, disqualified.
At the end of November, Shirtcliffe was pinged by police driving at 118kmh on the Waikato Expressway, in a temporary 100kmh speed zone.
During that conversation, he gave someone else’s name to police.
Defence lawyer Lisa Awatere said Shirtcliffe didn’t give police the wrong details to be deliberately tricky, rather describing it as a “brain explosion and freak out moment.”
In mid-December, Shirtcliffe was caught behind the wheel again by police during a routine stop.
Judge Saunders noted the defendant gave false details to police during that stop too but admitted it before the end of the encounter.
Shirtcliffe was in court to be sentenced on four charges of driving while suspended or disqualified and one of giving false details to police. Usually, the driving charges would carry an automatic disqualification.
But given his existing disqualification had expired, Shirtcliffe had reinstated his licence, earned another class of licence, and secured a new job with good prospects.
His lawyer submitted it would be in the public interest to get her client out of the cycle of disqualifications.
The judge said she accepted Shirtcliffe had matured and learned his lesson since his offending and, thanks to huge amounts of support from his partner and her family, he was on the right track again.
Shirtcliffe was sentenced to nine months’ supervision for the driving charges and was ordered to pay a $500 fine for giving false details to police.
He was ordered to complete 100 hours of community work in lieu of a disqualification.
Guilt admitted
ŌTOROHANGA man Kevin Tony Mason Pungatara, who is in custody, has admitted his guilt to all charges laid against him.
Last Wednesday, he entered guilty pleas to charges of escaping police custody, a representative charge of assaulting police, breach of release conditions and failing to appear in court.
He had already pleaded guilty to resisting police.
Pungatara was remanded in custody to be sentenced in August.
Treatment order for cop attacker
THE young man who randomly attacked a female police officer behind Te Kūiti police station last year has had a compulsory treatment order imposed by the court.
Trojan Jack Puratana Turner, 19, was found by a psychiatrist to have a “disease of the mind,” but prosecutor Baden Hilton said the disorder was not severe enough to lend itself to a defence of insanity.
On June 6 last year, a female police officer drove into the secure compound behind Te Kūiti police station to park her car. The area is secured by a gate with key card access.
Turner followed her in on foot and swung punches at the constable as she got out of her car.
Judge Saunders said the constable tried to protect herself but couldn’t escape.
A punch landed on the side of her face, causing her to fall against the side of the car.
When another officer came to her assistance, Turner attacked him, too.
Turner also pleaded guilty to kicking and smashing the glass front door of Te Kūiti’s pharmacy in September. His lawyer, Andrea Jones, said Turner explained he did it “not to be bad, but for fun.”
In May this year, he walked out of a Te Kūiti liquor store with two boxes of Cody’s bourbon without paying and was trespassed by a community organisation three times.
Judge Saunders agreed with doctors that a compulsory treatment order was necessary for the public’s interest and to keep Turner out of further trouble.
Daughter changes plea
THE daughter of a mother-daughter duo charged for acting offensively, has changed her plea and admitted her guilt.
Jessica Jones pleaded guilty last week to offensive behaviour, threatening acts and intentional damage. A charge of possessing an offensive weapon was withdrawn by police.
Her mother, Donna Makuch, faces the same charges. Progress in her case has stalled, after the judge granted her lawyer leave to withdraw last week.
Both women are next due in court in August.
Prison avoided for unprovoked violence
A MAN who attacked two people unprovoked – his partner and a job interviewer – has avoided a prison sentence after proving to the judge he has changed his ways.
Since admitting three assault charges, impeding breathing and threatening to kill, Raymond Charles Taiawa has moved to live with his grandmother in Rotorua.
Police prosecutor Baden Hilton said he started receiving positive reports within days of Taiawa moving in with his nan, a drug and alcohol counsellor.
In October last year, Taiawa attacked his partner after getting drunk on a night out and she refused to pick him up.
The pair were living in Ōtorohanga at the time and had gone out for dinner together, but when his girlfriend went home, Taiawa stayed out.
The judge said he had sent her abusive text messages, then assaulted her when he got home.
The attack included Taiawa tipping up the bed his girlfriend was on, grabbing her by the hair, shoving her, and grabbing her by the throat twice.
Taiawa pointed a butter knife to her stomach and threatened to stab her, then when he changed his mind, he snapped the knife, the judge said.
He also punched her in the face and threatened to kill her.
In a separate incident which Taiawa was also sentenced for last week, he became upset during a job interview about the company’s practices and randomly punched the other person in the face.
“It’s an easy out to turn to violence,” Judge Saunders said.
“That’s what you learned as a child and what you turn to as an adult.”
Taiawa’s lawyer, Andrea Jones, said she acknowledged the sentence starting point for the violent offending had to be prison, but she didn’t think that was where the sentence should end.
“Sending him to prison now would be a truly significant backwards step,” she said.
Jones said Taiawa was still in a relationship with his partner, and he was genuinely remorseful for his actions.
The prosecutor submitted that his opinion two weeks ago would have been that Taiawa needed to go to prison, but he appeared to have turned a corner since moving to be with family.
Judge Saunders set a starting point of 30 months’ imprisonment for the family violence charges and applied an uplift of three months for the separate assault.
She then granted a 20% discount for Taiawa’s guilty plea and a further 20% for his genuine remorse.
That left him with a 20-month prison sentence, which was below the two-year threshold to be able to be converted to a home detention sentence.
Judge Saunders sentenced Taiawa to eight months’ home detention, which she said he could thank his nan for making possible.
