A police investigation is under way after a person was seriously injured on Monday night.
Video / Andrew Warner
After shooting a man in the back as he drove away from his rural Waikato property, Wade Cresswell stashed some firearms, stuffed methamphetamine in his undies and then hid from police in a secret underground bunker full of cannabis plants.
Cresswell was serving a sentence of home detention at a Waghorn Rd, Matamata property at the time, so he cut off his ankle bracelet and hunkered down in the bunker for the next 12 hours until he was found by police.
When he was searched, he was found to have several grams of meth hidden in a container in his underwear.
The 33-year-old appeared for sentencing on multiple charges in the Hamilton District Court this week regarding the incident, which became the subject of an Armed Offenders Squad callout during the early hours of June 20, 2022.
Cresswell was known to the victim and the pair had a seemingly “hostile relationship”.
He was home that evening with his partner and two other associates when the victim and a female friend arrived about 1.30am.
He was spoken to outside the house by an associate and said he was there to see Cresswell’s partner.
Hearing this, Cresswell grabbed a .303 calibre rifle and a cut-down .22 rifle, which had an attached silencer and scope, got into his ute and drove out to park up next to the victim.
Cresswell told him, what is described in court documents as “in no unnecessary terms”, to leave.
The pair had a heated but brief exchange before Cresswell pulled back into his driveway.
However, as the victim drove away, Cresswell fired his .303 rifle.
The bullet hit the back of the car, went through its interior, through the back of the driver’s seat and hit the victim in his left upper back, entering his chest area and striking several vital organs.
The victim continued to drive for a few hundred metres before stopping and calling 111.
He was helicoptered to Waikato Hospital where he underwent immediate surgery for a perforated lung, shattered spleen and possible bowel injury.
When spoken to by police, Cresswell said he, his partner and an associate had been the target of thefts, threats of harm and actual harm by the victim in recent weeks.
Police at the scene of the shooting. Photo / Andrew Warner
He added he didn’t intend to shoot the victim, rather he had just wanted to scare him off.
The bunker where he was hiding out was a cannabis growing room and had 17 mature plants, 47 smaller plants, and seedlings.
Crown solicitor James Lewis told Judge Glen Marshall that although Cresswell and the victim’s father had a restorative justice conference, it appeared Cresswell tried to justify his actions by alleging unlawful activities by the victim.
“Based on that it’s not quite clear the extent to which we do have remorse here.”
Defence counsel Gerard Walsh said Cresswell had been serving home detention at the property that had the bunker.
The cannabis plants were likely already there, he said.
Walsh said his client knew he had a “significant” drug problem but he was eager and motivated to change.
“He’s got to get his head around his drug use. If he doesn’t he won’t get anywhere.”
Cresswell had been in custody for 22 months since the shooting, and Walsh argued for a sentence that would see him “going straight off to the parole board”.
Judge Marshall acknowledged he attended the restorative justice conference with a 5 per cent discount then gave him 10 per cent credit for his “damaging upbringing” and 25 per cent for his early guilty plea.
On charges of causing grievous bodily harm with reckless disregard, possession of meth and cannabis for supply, and possession of firearms, Cresswell was jailed for three years and 10 months, making him eligible for parole.
He also had $1500 in fines remitted.
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for eight years and been a journalist for 19.
