Career burglar checked abandoned houses

An earthquake damaged road outside a house in Christchurch. Photo / The Listener

A 60-year-old described as a career burglar got a suspended sentence after spending the equivalent of a month in jail for checking out Christchurch houses abandoned a few weeks after the devastating earthquake hit.

Manuel John Habib pleaded guilty to the charge of being unlawfully in a yard in Wainoni Road, and was ordered to come up for sentence in six months if called upon.

At a Christchurch District Court sitting inside Christchurch Men's Prison, Judge Raoul Neave said Habib was a career criminal with an appalling record. The suspended sentence would keep some consequences "hanging over him" for a time.

"Your offending has tailed off in recent times. One can only hope that advancing years are starting to slow you down."

Habib was seen on Wainoni Road at 5.10pm on March 12, riding a bicycle and looking into houses that had been abandoned because of the earthquake. He rode up one driveway of an abandoned house, and walked around the back of the house.

When a neighbour confronted him, he tried to hide in some bushes, but then left the address on his bicycle. Police found him nearby.

Habib said he was there trying to find a friend, but accepted he should not have been in the yard.

Meanwhile, 31-year-old Peter James Ashwell was also sentenced today for "dumpster diving" in a restricted area inside a Civil Defence cordon in Christchurch.

He pleaded guilty, after five weeks in custody, and Judge Neave sentenced him to a two-month jail term which should mean he is released almost immediately.

Defence counsel Steve Hembrow said the unemployed man had gone scrounging for food in a dumpster outside a supermarket in Dundas Street.

Judge Neave told Ashwell: "I suspect you were carrying out activities that you would have done regardless of whether there had been an earthquake. You were stupid enough to allow these activities to take you into an area where you had no business to be in the circumstances.

"There was a risk of you placing other people at risk if you came to grief in the aftermath of the earthquake."

- NZPA