Thief smokes joint in cell
A thief with a history of targeting tourists has gone back to prison after breaking into motel rooms.
Jason Robert Wills, 34, broke into three motel rooms at Linkwater Motel, near Picton, taking $6000 worth of cash, cameras and other electronic items on February 10.
Four days later, he took $50 from a backpacker’s wallet, a police summary said. Wills was charged with three counts of burglary and theft, and released on bail.
When police checked on him in March, he took a box cutter knife and barricaded himself in his room, saying he would kill the police officers and himself if they entered his room. After 90 minutes of negotiation, he was arrested and charged with obstructing police.
Two days later, Wills tried to escape from his cell at the Blenheim police station, covering a camera with paper, tearing a towel into pieces to make a rope and scratching ‘muppets’ into the wall.
Blenheim police officers later smelled cannabis smoke. Wills was lighting up a joint in his cell. Cannabis possession, cannabis smoking and two counts of intentional damage were added to his list of charges.
Wills denied the burglary charges but was found guilty at a jury trial in August. He admitted the remaining charges and appeared by audiovisual link for sentencing at the Blenheim District Court on Thursday.
His lawyer Rennie Gould said Wills used crime to fund his meth addiction. He had more than 60 burglary, fraud, theft and drug convictions.
Judge Denys Barry said he was not convinced Wills would serve home detention without breaching it, he said. Wills breached home detention for the third time in August last year after he cut off his ankle bracelet. He was on the run for two weeks before handing himself in.
He was sentenced to two years and three months’ imprisonment.