Stolen power tools sold on Facebook

A woman took power tools from a storage unit in Blenheim and then sold them on Facebook.

In the Blenheim District Court on Tuesday, Rosalie Tina Mason, 33, pleaded guilty to being a party to burglary.

A police summary of facts said between January 4 and 14 this year, Mason and a cooffender visited Blenheim Storage Ltd at Timandra Place.

Mason and the co-offender entered an unlocked storage unit and took power tools and other property belonging to the victim, the summary said.

The tools included a compound mitre saw, a metal wood box, a circular saw, a hand drill and a 3-tonne trolley jack. The property was later sold on Facebook.

When spoken to by police, Mason said it was a ‘‘spur of the moment thing’’.

Police were seeking reparation of $1722.80 for the items taken.

Mason’s lawyer Alan Heward said she hoped to get ‘‘quite a bit of the property back’’ before sentencing.

He asked for a probation report and that the matter be referred to restorative justice.

Mason also pleaded guilty to wilful trespass at the Warehouse in Blenheim.

Judge Richard Russell said she would do well to recover as much as she could. She was convicted and remanded on both charges and will appear for sentencing on January 6.

A methamphetamine user charged with child neglect has told a jury she would never smoke drugs in front of her infant son.

The woman in her 20s, who cannot be named, denied smoking methamphetamine while her son was on her lap, telling a jury the boy was living with her parents as the young mother struggled with parenthood.

‘‘I’ve been under the influence while being around my son, yes, but I’ve never smoked meth directly in front of my child,’’ she told the jury at the Blenheim District Court earlier this week.

‘‘We usually smoked in friends’ houses and cars. I never smoked meth [at the house] when I lived there, although I did smoke weed about twice.’’

The allegations were made by her exgirlfriend last year, who said she opened a bedroom door to find the woman smoking meth with her son on her lap in April 2017.