A 28-year-old Whangārei man charged over the ram raid of a central city jewellery business will got on trial next year.
Jake Gent faces charges of unlawfully taking a motor vehicle and burglary. The charges relate to the early morning ram raid of a Whangārei jewellery business.
A stolen Jeep was driven through the front window of Global Diamonds on Cameron St about 2.30am on February 8.
The glass front doors and a security grille were smashed and furniture and display cabinets on the shop floor were damaged by the vehicle.
Pendants, watches and coins were taken from display cabinets before a fog cannon was activated and the jeep was driven off and eventually dumped near Whangārei Boys High School. A back-up trial date has been set in February with a firm trial date scheduled for July.
Fountains in Paihia
Four new water fountains have been installed around Paihia by community group Focus Paihia in a bid to reduce demand for single-use plastic bottles. The new fountains are at Lucy Williams Park, Ti Beach playground, near Bay Beach Hire and near the toilet block at Te Haumi. In 2013 the group installed its first drinking fountain near Paihia i-Site in a project initiated by two Opua Primary School pupils. The project was driven by Brita Marti with much of the digging and concreting done by Bruce Gordon.
Top police graduate
Northland woman Constable Moyra van Rooyen has taken out the top prize in her graduating wing at police college.
Van Rooyen was born in South Africa and moved to Whangārei with her family when she was 6. She completed a degree majoring in criminology and psychology in the hope of pursuing a police career, knowing it was something she wanted to be a part of.
She will be presented the Minister's Award recognising top student at the graduation ceremony today.There are two new officers assigned to Northland and they will hit the beat after a one-week break.
The rest of the new constables will be heading to Waikato 7, Bay of Plenty 2, Eastern 6, Central 13, Wellington 17, Tasman 1, Canterbury 8, Southern 4.
