A trial that could involve evidence from up to 58 burglary and theft victims is to be held in November, more than two years after the accused was arrested after hundreds of stolen goods were found cluttering a rural address near Hastings.
Peter John James Gray, now 44, was arrested after police discovered the hoarded property including a kitchen set-up, appliances, air conditioning units, tools, construction materials and fittings, scaffolding, rugby tackle bags, an irrigation system and other items in August 2016, at an address where Gray lived with his mother off Ngatarawa Rd, near Bridge Pa.
He faces 58 charges, mainly of receiving stolen property connected with burglaries and thefts from construction sites and other properties in the wider Hastings area over a period of about two years.
Much of the property was traced to complainants who were invited to the site to view items in a shed and spread across the section, and to identify and recover what belonged to them.
Gray is in continued custody, after allegedly breaching conditions of bail when found in February outside property in Omahu Rd, in circumstances which police say indicated an intention to commit a crime.