Home invasion admitted

A man invaded a Canterbury home, pointed what appeared to be a firearm at the people inside and demanded they give him money.

Shaun Francis Whittaker, a 41-year-old mechanic, entered the home in Templeton, south of Christchurch, on September 3 and pointed the weapon at the occupants, shouting for money.

He then went in their laundry and the female victim started calling 111 on her phone. Whittaker saw her and shoved her, causing her to drop the phone.

The male victim said they did not have any money, so Whittaker took a bullet from his pocket and told them he would shoot them.

When the male victim tried to push him out of the door, Whittaker stabbed the man’s hand with a screwdriver and grabbed his phone out of his hand.

He left the house with the phone in a holder, which contained $30 cash and four bank cards.

Whittaker tried to use a debit card at a bar but was unsuccessful. He later used one at a Caltex service station using the pay-wave function and bought two packets of cigarettes.

Two other attempts at a Z station failed.

On September 5, Whittaker parked a car opposite Baillies Bar in Edgeware and took a crossbow from his boot. He pointed it at a person sitting outside the bar and yelled at him. He put the crossbow back in the boot, then ran at the victim and punched him.

Whittaker pleaded guilty in the Christchurch District Court on Friday to aggravated robbery, possession of an offensive weapon, assault, and using the bank cards four times.

Sergeant Paul Scott told the court the weapon Whittaker had in the home invasion was a round copper pipe with a brass fitting, representing a firearm.

Judge Tom Gilbert read Whittaker the first of the three strike warnings for repeat violent offenders and remanded him in custody to a Crown sentencing on January 24.