Quake raids admitted

File photo / Herald on Sunday

A 28-year-old has admitted being unlawfully on two damaged properties the day after the Christchurch earthquake, after police agreed to drop burglary charges.

Daniel Ezekiel Peneha, unemployed, pleaded guilty in Christchurch District Court today to being unlawfully in a house in Edgeware Road and a dairy on the corner of Edgeware and Barbadoes Streets, The Chrsitchurch Court News website reported.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Mark Berryman said the offences happened about 6pm on September 5 when Peneha and an associate went on to the balcony of a two-storey house with tools and tried to jemmy open a window. They fled when the window broke.

They then went to a shop nearby which had been damaged and had been secured in makeshift fashion with sheets of corrugated iron.

Police were told and they were caught in a yard, where Peneha was found with gloves and a torch. No property had been taken at either place.

Defence counsel Bridget Ayrey said Peneha claimed the house window was already broken. His last burglary conviction was in 2006. He had now spent five months on bail with a 24-hour curfew, and his co-offender had received a sentence of 100 hours of community work for burglary.

"He accepts it's certainly not a good look," said Miss Ayrey.

Judge Michael Crosbie said the co-offender's sentence must have been "an aberration" compared to the fate of most people who pillaged after the earthquake. Peneha had targeted these properties because they were easy pickings.

He remanded Peneha on bail, with a curfew, to May 4 for a pre-sentence report to assess his suitability for home detention.

- NZPA