Man stole $6000 to pay drug debt

A 25-year-old Central Otago man stole $6000 from his employer so he could pay a drug debt.

Samuel Edward Broad was sentenced to four months’ home detention, 160 hours’ community work and ordered to pay $6000 reparation after he admitted stealing the money from Super Liquor in Kaikorai Valley in Dunedin between September 1 and January 20.

Broad created false transactions, often using co-workers log-ins to disguise the offending, and stole stock from the store, the court was told. It was believed the total amount stolen was higher.

Lawyer Liam Collins said Broad had been making bad decisions and used the funds to pay a ‘‘large debt’’ he had created through substance abuse.

Broad had been remorseful and accepted responsibility for the offending.

Judge Christina Cook ordered Broad to undertake an alcohol and drug programme for his addiction to methamphetamine and cannabis.

She ordered a suppression man’s address.

Assault with weapon

Indecent act

of

the Claude Stewart-Hudson, 20, was remanded until September 14 for sentencing for assault with a motor vehicle, offering to supply cannabis and two charges of breaching community work in Hastings between November 27 and March 28.

Stewart-Hudson arrived at a property to sell cannabis when an argument started about the deal, the court was told. On leaving the scene, Stewart-Hudson hit the victim at knee height with his car, knocking him to the ground. The victim suffered bruising and was shaken by the incident. Police found Stewart-Hudson a short time later in possession of cannabis and a knife. Samuel Kingan Rowley, 19, of Mount Barker, was sentenced to four months’ community detention and nine months’ supervision for doing an indecent act in Wanaka between July 1 and 14. Rowley was also given a first strike under the three strikes law.

Fraud

Nirberto Ferraino, 26, croupier, was remanded until June 24 for a disputed facts hearing for fraud at Kaikoura on January 20. Ferraino was jointly charged with Geovanna Tutassi-Davila for using a credit card to pay for accommodation. Police believe Ferraino was part of a ‘‘sophisticated’’ card-skimming operation which involved skimming credit card details and transferring the details onto blank cards. However, the judge said his involvement at this stage was ‘‘undetermined’’.

Assault

Pryde Tamsin Stewart-Hudson, 22, housekeeper, was remanded until June 6 for two charges of assault and intentional damage on May 29. Stewart-Hudson had been drinking when she become involved in an argument with her partner and began hitting him on the head. Her brother intervened before one of them was hit over the back with a ski. Stewart-Hudson then threw a exercise machine through onto a motor vehicle, breaking the windscreen.

Aaron Michael Miers, 35, business owner, sentenced to 80 hours’ community work and ordered to pay a $300 emotional harm payment for assaulting a bouncer on March 28.

Jacob James Forde, 19, plasterer, sentenced to three months’ community detention during weekends, nine months’ supervision and ordered to pay $300 reparation for assault and disorderly behaviour likely to cause violence on February 22 and threatening behaviour and intentional damage on December 11.

Alice Ward, 18, of Cromwell, remanded until August 3 for sentencing for two charges of assault on January 5 and theft of $50 of petrol on May 9.

Cannabis

Matthew Jarrod Eddy, 39, musician of Kingston, remanded until September 14 for sentencing for cultivating cannabis.

Police found 13 cannabis plants in Eddy’s possession, up to 1.2 metres tall.

Tobias Pennell Clarke, 27, kitchen hand, sentenced to nine months’ supervision and 170 hours’ community work for cultivating cannabis on May 7.

Police found a 50cm-high plant Clarke’s bedroom.

Burglary

Theft

Unlawful hunting

Disorderly behaviour

Driving

in Daarian Akuhata Wira, of Wanaka, remanded in custody for sentencing in the Invercargill District Court on July 31 for burglary and receiving a stolen bike between May 17 and 20.

Wira entered a property in Wanaka on May 20 and stole a laptop, iPod and external hard drive. George Edward Halson, 23, ordered to appear if called upon within six months for stealing a $10 jacket from the Salvation Army Family Store while on a community work sentence, on April 17. Luke Shaun Morrison, dairy farmer of Lake Hawea, fined $350 for illegal hunting on private property near Alexandra on July 27. Craig Lisle Wadsworth, 40, engineer of Cromwell, fined $900 for disorderly behaviour and resisting arrest on April 30.

Nathan James Herewini, 36, for Cromwell, fined $450 for disorderly behaviour likely to cause violence on April 30. Darren Paul Malatesta, 44, disqualified from driving for six months, ordered to pay $750 reparation and a $1000 emotional harm payment for careless driving causing injury on January 2.