Abusive phone call allegations bring charges

Two men are facing separate charges of using phones to abuse staff of Government support agencies, including one alleged bomb threat against a Napier-bound mail plane.

Paul Bob McGinty, 37, of Napier, indicated he would plead guilty to a charge of using a phone to threaten an Inland Revenue Department processing centre staff member last week when he appeared briefly in Napier District Court yesterday.

But he would plead not guilty to a charge of threatening injury in the incident, which led to the flight from Paraparaumu being diverted to Palmerston North. Full-scale emergency procedures were put in place there before the alert was called-off.

McGinty was remanded until July 12.

Wheelchair-bound Brendon Barrie Nuku, 30, of Napier, also appeared before Judge Tony Adeane yesterday and pleaded guilty to a charge relating to a phone call to the ACC's Hastings office on February 25.

He was fined $300.

According to the police summary, Nuku became angry and upset because he believed his doctor had stopped his medication on advice from the ACC.

He told a woman at the ACC: "I have a gun and anyone who pisses me off will get a bullet, plus all their family and kids."

Police alleged a similar threat was made when an agent acting for ACC went to the defendant's address on March 21 to serve a trespass notice in response to the phone call.

Defence counsel Steve Manning told the judge the incident stemmed from a bureaucratic muck-up which had stopped payments for Nuku's medication, which he had been without for five days before making the phone call.

He had made several phone calls attempting to rectify the situation before calling ACC.

Mr Manning said the complaint did not record the full nature of the call, in which Nuku asked "What do you think I am going to do?" and then used the offending words.

- HAWKE'S BAY TODAY