Man pleads not guilty to 10 arson charges

A 20-year-old Northland man has pleaded not guilty to 10 charges of arson on land in the Kaipara area. PHOTO/File

A Northland man has pleaded not guilty to 10 charges of arson and elected to have a jury trial.

Andrew Lee Searle, 20, of Te Kopuru, appeared in the Dargaville District Court before Judge Duncan Harvey yesterday. Through his lawyer Wayne McKean he entered not guilty pleas to the charges that relate to fires over three years. Searle was remanded in custody until April 13 for a case review hearing.

The most recent charge Searle faces relates to a fire at Kellys Bay on January 12 this year.

He is also charged with lighting fires that damaged an area protected by the Department of Conservation on January 4 then again on January 7.

Also on January 7, Searle is charged with starting a fire on Toms Track, Te Kopuru, which destroyed vegetation belonging to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. The earliest charges relate to a fire on June 5, 2014, at Toms Track. Six months later, on December 6, police say, he was responsible for a fire at Stick Lake, near Pouto.

Three charges relate to January 2015 and fires on Lighthouse Rd, Pouto, over two consecutive days. One of the fires destroyed property belonging to Global Forest Products Ltd. Searle is also charged with a fire on February 8, 2015, at Toms Track.

During the latest blaze, at Kellys Bay, two helicopters and ground crews worked by the light of a full moon to douse a scrub fire that started in native scrub. Fourteen firefighters from Te Kopuru, and a crew from Dargaville fought the blaze.