Gisborne District Court news

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

A woman already warned several times by police for breaching Covid-19 lockdown conditions, was charged with obstruction under the Health Act after further flouting the rules.

This time she was discovered in the early hours of April 24, driving in town for non-essential purposes with friends from outside her bubble.

Lyndsey Henerita Hawea, 30, pleaded guilty in Gisborne District Court to obstruction under the Health Act.

Police spotted Hawea driving on Lowe Street about 10 kilometres from her lockdown address with two passengers, who she claimed to be giving rides home.

None of the three were in the same bubble, the court was told.

Hawea gave an excuse that involved looking for a petrol station but police noted she had already passed several before being stopped.

Judge Turitea Bolstad convicted Hawea and ordered her to come up for sentence if called upon within six months.

Counsel Lucy Rishworth contended that sentence was appropriate.

Hawea was subject to a 24-hour curfew for three weeks after the offence. It was effectively a term of home detention, Ms Rishworth said.

She accepted the curfew might not have been viewed that way had Hawea been on it during Level 4 — when all the country was essentially confined to their homes.

But apart from the first three days of it, Hawea was on it when the country had returned to Level 3.

With 21 active charges still progressing through the Napier District Court, Marie June Taiapa, 27, was further remanded on bail to appear next in that court.

Taiapa pleaded guilty to a Health Act charge of breaching Covid-19 rules and four breaches of bail, all arising in Gisborne. Those charges were transferred for call with her other matters in the Napier court on August 7.