Man arrested after brutal bashing and car theft

Ngawha Springs. File Photo / APN

A man has been arrested over a robbery at Ngawha Springs where a man was brutally bashed and his Mazda ute stolen.

Police arrested a 25-year-old man in relation to the aggravated robbery that took place on Ngawha Springs Rd, Kaikohe, about 2am last Thursday.

The bashed man, aged 21, had earlier been watching the State of Origin rugby league game in the Kaikohe Hotel with friends.

The man had then picked up two men between 1.30 and 2am, who told him they lived at Ngawha Springs, a few kilometres east of the town.

The man stopped at the side of Ngawha Springs Rd and the two men dragged him out of his Mazda Bounty twin cab ute and bashed him. The man, who suffered serious head and facial injuries, was taken to Whangarei Hospital and later discharged.

The man police arrested in relation to the robbery appeared in the Kaikohe District Court on Saturday facing a charge of aggravated robbery.

He was remanded in custody.

Police have also found the bashed man's Mazda ute in Kaikohe.

However, they are still looking for the second man wanted in relation to the robbery.

He is described as being in his late 20s, about 1.88m in height, with curly black hair and a goatee beard and wearing a black-coloured hooded sweatshirt.

Anyone who has any information regarding the whereabouts of this man can contact Detective Sergeant Chris Fouhy on (09) 405-2966 or call Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

Mr Fouhy, of the Criminal Investigation Unit in Kaikohe, said police had spoken to many people who had been at the Kaikohe Hotel the night of the bashing.

The incident was the second robbery at Ngawha in just over two months.

Ngawha Hot Springs was robbed on April 29 when a pool attendant was threatened with a machete by two men.

Darren Kelly Ace Donnelly, 27, of Auckland, and Levi Reeves, 21, of Ngawha Springs, were later arrested and charged with aggravated robbery of the hot pools.

According to court documents, they took $235, a set of car keys and a cellphone in the robbery just before 9pm on April 29.

That was just as the pools were about to close.