KEY POINTS:
A man who admits leaving a portable methamphetamine laboratory in primary school grounds says the equipment and chemicals were left in his garage by an unknown woman and he panicked and got rid of them.
However, the Crown did not accept David Vi Vong's explanation, prosecutor Zannah Johnston told Judge Brian Callaghan in Christchurch District Court today.
According to the police, Vong was actually transporting the laboratory so that someone else could use it to manufacture methamphetamine when he panicked and dumped it over a fence and in the bin at Christchurch's Windsor School.
Defence counsel David Ruth said Vong, a 35-year-old taxi driver, from Vietnam, denied that. He claimed the laboratory had been left in his garage by a woman he did not know, but had provided accommodation for. He only wanted to get rid of it.
The dispute could not be resolved in time for Vong's sentencing today, after he pleaded guilty to charges of possessing a precursor substance used in drug manufacture, and endangering life by criminal nuisance.
The case has been adjourned to next Friday, when a date will be set for a disputed facts hearing to decide the issue.
Mr Ruth said the Crown's assertion that it could prove the point beyond reasonable doubt was ridiculous.
"Bring it on," he told the judge.
The Crown has also applied for the district court to decline jurisdiction and have the case sent to the High Court for sentence, after the disputed facts hearing has been held.
The laboratory, including containers leaking fumes, was dumped last September. Mr Ruth said the school was deserted at the time, but unknown to Vong a holiday programme was running.
Christchurch City Council is seeking $7915 reparations for the cost of decontaminating the area.
Vong was remanded on bail for the hearing.
- NZPA
