Unlikely explanation

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 424, 18 February 1992, Page 4

Unlikely explanation

Clyde William Selwyn Reimie, 19, unemployed of Rangataua, was convicted and sentenced to 120 hours of community service when he appeared for sentence on two charges related to the burglary of the Ohakune Tyre and Energy Centre on 12 November. According to his counsel defendant had driven two passengers from Rangataua to Ohakune at 2.30am thinking they were going to a party and only realised that his passengers were intending to commit an offence when they broke into the Ohakune Tyre and Energy Centre.

He later went along with the co-offenders by driving them home and hiding his vehicle in the Karioi Forest in order to report it as having been stolen so as to cover their tracks. He was charged both with burglary and with making a false statement to police. In addition to the community service sentence he was also disqualified from driving for a further two months accumulative on his present term of disqualification and was told it would be unlawful for him to drive again before 12 September this year. In imposing these sentences Judge Watson said that he could not entirely accept defendant's explanation about not knowing what his co-offenders were planning to do. "At 2.30 in the morning you must have had some idea of what was going on," he said. "They certainly weren't coming into Ohakune to buy a Lotto ticket!" Counsel: Brian Mason.