Police widen search for car plunge pair

Warrants have been issued for the arrest of Sheean Leroy Heta and Linda Cherie Phillips. Photo / Supplied

The hunt for a man and a woman who escaped after a dramatic police chase on the North Shore on Tuesday has become Auckland-wide.

Police have spent the past two days looking for a man and a woman who swam to freedom on Hellyers Creek, at Beach Haven on the northwest tip of Waitemata Harbour.

They were in a car which hit a police officer trying to stop it in Takapuna, 8km to the east, resulting in him being hospitalised with serious injuries.

The car was chased to Beach Haven, where it plunged off the road and then the wharf. The occupants tried to swim to safety from there.

Police yesterday issued warrants for the arrest of two south Aucklanders - Sheean Leroy Heta, 23, of Otara, and Linda Cherie Phillips, 33, of Mangere.

The pair were seen in a shop at Westgate shopping mall, in Massey northwest Auckland, about 10km southwest of Beach Haven, about 1.30pm yesterday.

Police spokesman Kevin Loughlin said so far no one had been arrested.

"We know these people. We know where to find these people and we will find them," Mr Loughlin said.

Heta was dressed in shorts only, with no other clothing. Phillips was wearing a white top with shorts.

"The inquiry is effectively covering the whole Auckland metropolitan area now," Detective Sergeant Craig McCormack said.

"We will be checking their addresses and known associates in the South Auckland area today - and we hope that they will hand themselves in."

Police had not had a huge response from the public since releasing images of the pair yesterday afternoon but hoped it would increase today.

One of the occupants of the car was caught as he came out of the harbour a few hundred metres away.

A 28-year-old man subsequently appeared in North Shore District Court yesterday on a charge of burglary and unlawfully getting into a vehicle.

Heta and Phillips were thought to have swum up the harbour and later asked for directions in Greenhithe.

The injured policeman was initially thought to have been seriously hurt but police later said he was expected to be released from hospital within a few days.

During the chase a man was arrested for theft of outboard motors.

He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, said police.

- NZPA