Teen ripped off Trade Me user

A Blenheim teenager stole a person's Trade Me account details and used the trader's good reputation to sell items which the buyer never received.

Michael Andrew Mason, 18, unemployed of Blenheim, admitted accessing a computer system for pecuniary advantage when he appeared in the Blenheim District Court yesterday. He will be sentenced on March 28.

Mason also admitted breaching community work and community detention.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Graham Single, of Blenheim, said Mason found logon details for the auction site on a computer which belonged to the victim.

Mason used the account, which had 97 per cent positive feedback, on February 2 to sell a set of mag wheels for $600, and gave the buyer his bank account details instead of the real user's details. The buyer later contacted the real user, who knew nothing about the sale. Both contacted police.

Mason used the money to pay for board and clothes.

Defence lawyer Philip Watson said Mason made sure the wheels had been sent to the buyer in Auckland, and had a receipt from the shipping company.

Bottles thrown at strangers

A Canvastown man threw glass bottles at groups of people because he felt they had taken his and his brother's jobs, according to police.

Lloyd George McKenzie, 23, unemployed, admitted disorderly behaviour likely to cause violence and was sentenced to 60 hours' community work.

Mr Single said McKenzie was a passenger in a car driving south on Hutcheson St, Blenheim, about 7pm on February 24.

He threw a bottle at a group of people, but missed, and also verbally abused them. He threw another bottle at another group walking on the Hutcheson St bridge, narrowly missing them.

McKenzie told police the group had taken his and his brother's jobs.

Mr Single did not say who the groups were or what jobs they had allegedly taken.

Caught red-handed

A Linkwater man who ran from police when they searched his home was caught a short time later holding five small cannabis plants.

Shaun Jon Jordan, 42, a labourer, was sentenced to 180 hours' community work and 12 months' supervision after admitting cultivating cannabis. An order was also made for the destruction of the cannabis and growing equipment.

Judge Tony Zohrab said that when police searched Jordan's home on September 30, he ran to the back of the property and grabbed five small cannabis plants, part of a larger growing operation. He tried to run away but was soon caught.

Defence lawyer John Holdaway said Jordan had been receiving counselling for his cannabis use and could only carry out light community work duties. Judge Zohrab disagreed.

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Other charges

Rachel Ann Bary, 43, of Renwick, admitted wilful trespass and was ordered to make a $300 donation to St Mark's Society.

Amco Pake Cassidy, 21, of Canvastown, admitted assault with intent to injure and will be sentenced on April 11.

Nigel Wilson Smith, 55, of Blenheim, admitted assault and was ordered to pay $500 to the victim for emotional harm.

Adrian Craig Green, 24, of Blenheim, admitted assaulting a woman and was given a 12-month suspended sentence.

Lucretia Shantell Bullen, 17, unemployed of Blenheim, admitted two charges of assaulting police and disorderly behaviour and will be sentenced on March 21.

Mihi Hurimoni Love, 33, admitted assault and disorderly behaviour likely to cause violence and was sentenced to 80 hours' community work.

Graeme Kerry Kereama Aldridge, 32, a labourer of Ngakuta Bay, admitted assault and was sentenced to nine months' supervision.

Darryl John Boyce, 22, of Blenheim, admitted assault, burglary, and breaching community work and community detention, and was sentenced to five months' home detention and 100 hours' community work.

Jed Lockyer, 35, of Picton, admitted theft, burglary, wilful damage and disorderly behaviour, and was sentenced to 120 hours' community work and ordered to pay $200 for emotional harm.

Taylor Lee Carter, 21, a mother of Waikawa, admitted theft and was ordered to pay $150 to Countdown for a staff morning tea.

Nicholas James Corkin, 29, a linesperson of Blenheim, admitted unlawfully being in a building and was ordered to pay $250 emotional harm.

Francis Clifford Ellis, 27, unemployed of Renwick, admitted dangerous driving, driving while forbidden, breaching bail and presenting a firearm, and was sentenced to two months' community detention and 100 hours' community work and disqualified for nine months.

Pamore Te Ao Tangata Lewis Hapeta-King, 18, unemployed of Renwick, admitted driving while suspended and was sentenced to 40 hours' community work and six months' supervision.

Brendon Thomas Carl Niblett, 24, of Renwick, admitted interfering with a van and possessing utensils to smoke cannabis, and was sentenced to 60 hours' community work.

- The Marlborough Express

Last updated 11:21 01/03/2011

Prison next for woman in drink-driving case

A woman was driving with twice the legal breath-alcohol limit when a trailer she was towing clipped the Grove Rd Bridge in Blenheim and threw a metal cage into the windscreen of an oncoming van.

She was "likely to go to prison" if she appeared in court for drink-driving again, Judge Tony Zohrab warned her when she appeared in the Blenheim District Court yesterday.

Georgia Shirley Victoria Howe, 23, of Blenheim, was found to have an excess breath alcohol level of 860 micrograms (legal limit 400mcg).

Judge Zohrab said Howe had two passengers in the car as she towed a trailer north along Grove Rd about 6pm on November 7. She was distracted by a cellphone and the trailer clipped the bridge, throwing the metal cage on the trailer into an oncoming van.

Howe slowed down but kept driving, he said.

She told police she had stopped drinking the night before and had not stopped after the incident because she was scared.

Howe's front-seat passenger grabbed the steering wheel and turned the car on to the side of the road. The passengers got out and Howe drove off but police soon found her in a layby.

Defence counsel Laurie Murdoch said Howe denied using her cellphone.

Howe was disqualified for 12 months and sentenced to nine months' supervision and 180 hours' community work after admitting dangerous driving, failing to stop in a non-injury accident and drink-driving.

She was also ordered to do a driver improvement course.

- The Marlborough Express

Last updated 11:38 01/03/2011

Alive and out of the rubble

"Where are you? We will get you out."

As men frantically worked to free Blenheim woman Karen Scott and her daughter from the rubble of what used to be her High St cafe, she could only hear her rescuers.

"Reach out your arms and we'll pull you out."

A pair of hands reached for hers and dragged her and her daughter back to the surface.

Her only thought after her rescue was the safety of a staff member still trapped by the roof of the cafe that had fallen during the violent shake.

"They [the men] were telling me I had to leave, but Tracey was still in there and I didn't know where she was," she said.

"They kept saying it was too dangerous, but I had to find her."

The three were busy preparing for the lunch time trade at Ms Scott's Ja-Basco Bar and Cafe when the earth began to shake.

Heavy bottles of spirits were "flying through the air like torpedoes" and everything else was "flying everywhere", she said.

She yelled at her daughter and Tracey to run toward part of the cafe which had been strengthened with steel beams, but they only managed to take three steps before the roof collapsed, some of which hit Ms Scott's head.

The group of men, who worked on the floor above the cafe, could not see Tracey or hear her because alarms were sounding.

They climbed onto the roof and tried entering the back door of the cafe but it was blocked, she said.

A hole in the roof gave the men their first sight of Tracey who was in a hole in the rubble and she too was pulled out.

All three were unhurt, although Ms Scott still had a bad headache and sore back when she spoke to the Marlborough Express on Friday.

Family members drove from Blenheim on Thursday to pick up Ms Scott, and her daughter and her daughter's young children.

The group would stay with family in Blenheim indefinitely, she said.

Her business had been lost to the rubble, but she said other families were worse off.

"I've got choices I can make. I'm alive and I can begin again," she said.

Ms Scott used to own Copper Bock bar in Blenheim, which is now Fairweathers on Scott.

- The Marlborough Express SIMON WONG

Last updated 11:13 28/02/2011

Message to readers

Last updated 11:33 24/02/2011

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We apologise for the reduced edition of The Marlborough Express yesterday, and for the non-publication of the Kaikoura Star this week.

Problems with our computer servers based in Christchurch are causing problems for all Fairfax newspapers in the South Island, which are being printed under extreme difficulty.

We are proud of what we achieved yesterday to bring you updates and pictures from the earthquake in Canterbury.

Our advertising clients are also affected by the production problems, and we thank them for their patience. Any advertising queries should be directed to the usual consultant or by calling 520 8900.

Our technical people are doing everything they can to work around the production problems, but we hope you will be patient if papers are late or don't follow the usual form.

- The Marlborough Express

Well-respected Awatere Valley farmer Graham Black has died and his wife, Beverley Black, is in a stable condition after being found in their upturned vehicle down a steep bank yesterday.

Family, friends and police searched the road after the Blacks did not return home from a trip to Blenheim on Tuesday afternoon.

They were found in Cow Creek, about 40 kilometres from the Awatere Valley Rd turnoff on State Highway 1.

The couple run Awapiri Station, in the Awatere Valley, with their son and daughter-in-law, and are much respected high country farming people. Mr Black is well known in New Zealand and Australia as a merino stud ram breeder and judge and for mentoring young people in the merino industry.

A family spokeswoman said the couple were in Blenheim on Tuesday afternoon, and were reported missing after their son, Duncan, visited them on Wednesday morning and could not find them.

Marlborough highway patrol leader Sergeant Barrie Greenall said a family member found the car about 80 metres down a steep cliff, shortly before a helicopter arrived.

Emergency workers used cutting gear to free the couple. Mr Black was pronounced dead at the scene, and workers carried Mrs Black on a stretcher several hundred metres up the steep hill to the waiting helicopter. She was flown to Wairau Hospital and was reported to be in a stable condition this morning.

A friend said Mr Black's death would leave a large gap in the Awatere Valley and New Zealand merino farming communities, which would remember him for his integrity and quiet sense of humour. The couple have a son, two daughters and three grandchildren aged between 4 and 16.

The couple have shown their top merinos at every A&P show in Blenheim and Christchurch since 1976.

Mr Black spent four decades judging sheep both nationally and internationally and was a founding member and a life member of the local merino association.

Constable Michelle Stagg, of Blenheim, said Mr Black, who was the driver, may have failed to take a sharp right-hand bend.

Volunteer fire brigades from Seddon and Blenheim, Blenheim police and St John ambulance attended the scene.

- The Marlborough Express

Station owner dies in car crash

SIMON WONG

Last updated 12:23 24/02/2011

BEN CURRAN

Graham Black at last year's A and P Show in Blenheim

SCOTT HAMMOND

Rescued: Awatere Valley woman Beverley Black was flown to Wairau Hospital and is in a stable condition after she and husband Graham Black were found in their upturned car in the Awatere Valley.

Accident near Cow Creek

One person is dead and one alive after a car left he road near Cow Creek in the Awatere Valley.

The pair needed to be cut from the vehicle by emergency services this afternoon after they were found inside their four-wheel-drive vehicle upside down in the creek.

The survivor was taken to hospital by a helicopter.

The car left the road on a tight bend and fell about 80 metres down a sheer cliff.

Marlborough highway patrol leader Sergeant Barrie Greenall did not know when the vehicle left the road.

Details about the people in the vehicle were not available tonight.

- The Marlborough Express SIMON WONG

Last updated 18:42 23/02/2011

Joy-riding can be expensive

"Joy-riding suddenly feels less joyful, doesn't it?" a judge told a young man as he stood in the dock at the Blenheim District Court yesterday.

Gary John Watts, 20, a carpetlayer, of Blenheim, was a passenger in a stolen car involved in a 40-kilometre police chase on February 8.

Judge Jill Moss said Watts' decision to get in the car and his inability to say no to his friends had turned sour.

Watts admitted unlawfully getting into a car and was fined $300, and ordered to pay court costs.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Steve Frost said Watts was asked by two friends of his flatmate if he wanted to go for a joy-ride in a black 2008 Holden Commodore, which had been stolen from Nelson the day before. The car was soon involved in a chase along Marlborough roads, ending with road spikes outside the Havelock police station.

Watts ran from the car, but was later found by police.

Teen in trouble

A final warning on a Blenheim teenager's record could not be ignored when he appeared on a raft of charges, Judge Moss said.

She sentenced Samuel James Koroheke, 18, unemployed, to four months jail for three cannabis charges, three bail breaches, an assault with a weapon, converting a car, and possessing instruments to convert a car.

Judge Moss said the assault, which she deemed the most serious of the charges, did not merit a prison sentence on its own, but did when the other charges and her final warning were taken into consideration.

Home or community detention were not an option because Koroheke had "burned his bridges" with his family, she said.

Cannabis charges

Matthew Carl Rickerby, 21, unemployed, was sentenced to 220 hours community work for cultivating cannabis, possession of cannabis, 60 cannabis seeds and utensils to smoke cannabis after he admitted the charges in the Blenheim District Court yesterday.

Judge Moss told Rickerby he should see a health provider about the amount of cannabis he used, although she did not sentence him to do that.

"It [cannabis use] can continue and continue, but it always ends badly ... it has long term devastating effects," she said.

"[You need to say] `I can choose to live better than this'."

Police prosecutor sergeant Steve Frost said police searched Rickerby's home about 3pm on February 3, and found eight cannabis plants growing in a vegetable garden.

Two other plants were drying in the laundry and 60 seeds, a bong, and spotting knives were found inside.

Judge Moss also ordered the destruction of the cannabis and utensils.

Lesley Michael Lundt, 21, a factory hand of Blenheim, admitted possession of cannabis, and possession of cannabis utensils, and was sentenced to 200 hours community work.

Anthony Michael Franz, 21, of Blenheim, admitted possession of cannabis, and possession of cannabis utensils, and was sentenced to 80 hours community work.

Harley Robert Hokianga, 24, a vineyard worker, of Blenheim, admitted possession of cannabis, and offensive behaviour, and was sentenced to 40 hours community work.

Extra work forstealing trailer

Trying to sell a stolen trailer to an off-duty police officer earned a Picton mechanic a community work sentence. Anthony John David McKenzie, 23, of Picton, admitted taking the trailer and theft and was sentenced to 140 hours community work.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Steve Frost said McKenzie drove to BP in Picton, about 3am on February 9, and took a trailer, which had been secured with a padlock, and filled it with car batteries and scrap metal from the station. He later sold the scrap metal and batteries, then tried to sell the trailer to the off-duty police officer for $150.

Defence counsel Kent Arnott said McKenzie sold the items because he was low on cash, but admitted his dishonesty.

Driver was drunk

A drunk driver who hit another car in central Blenheim, then drove from the scene, had to stop soon after because of the damage to his own car, according to police.

Leroy Alex Brown, 31, of Blenheim, admitted careless driving, failing to stop and excess breath-alcohol (third or subsequent offence), and will be sentenced on April 11.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Steve Frost said Brown was driving west on Alfred St, about 6pm on New Year's Day, and did not give way, hitting the front of the victim's car and causing it to spin.

Brown drove away, but his car stopped soon after and he walked away.

He was found to have 1131 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath.

The legal limit is 400mcg.

- The Marlborough Express Last updated 12:01 22/02/2011