KEY POINTS:
Teeahu Reti is in custody awaiting sentence after clocking up 16 charges in his three-week crime spree.
The 35-year-old pleaded guilty to all charges - including bolting from the same courtroom he was standing in - before Judge Philip Moran in Christchurch District Court today.
The spree started on May 22 with driving while disqualified.
He admitted four charges of stealing laptop computers from Warehouse Stationery on June 8, twice on June 9, and again on June 10.
June 11 he went to the Christchurch Casino and won a jackpot of $81.00. He was given a pay form but changed the amount to $800 and tried to cash it. When a check was made to validate the amount he fled.
Then he was seen outside Linwood High School taking a wallet out of an unlocked car while a four-year-old was in the back seat.
Later that day he picked up three fishing reels and walked out of a hunting and fishing shop. He was followed and the police were called.
Next day he entered a chemist shop while he was wearing a balaclava and holding a knife. He got the staff to put drugs in a bag and ran off.
On June 14 he was seen driving by police, and they chased him. He passed slow vehicles on the wrong side of the road over a railway crossing, then ran off on foot and was lost in a crowd in Kaiapoi.
On June 15 police again saw him driving a car and followed him. He ran into a flat, punched his fist through a door where a terrified woman escaped out the back door. He went to the next flat where he punched a man who wrestled with him and held him until the police arrived.
When Reti was brought into court on June 16 he fled out the main doors and into lawyers' offices across the road. He was cornered in a toilet and damaged it before being brought back to court.
Judge Moran remanded Reti in custody for a crown sentencing on September 5.
Defence counsel Rupert Glover explained that a reparation report would be pointless but a probation report has been called for.
Reti admitted robbery, possession of an offensive weapon, assault, burglary, driving while disqualified, escaping, intentional damage, dishonestly using a document, and dangerous driving.
- NZPA
