Facebook posting led to house break-in
File image. © Andrew Bardwell
A Rolleston house was trashed and burgled of goods worth $74,291 after the burglar read on Facebook that the householder was going to be out of town.
Willem Martin Kerris, a 25-year-old who also lived in Rolleston, says he did not carry out the burglary himself on the weekend of January 30 to February 1, but arranged for a co-offender to do it.
He pleaded guilty to burglary in the Christchurch District Court today on the basis that he set it up, and he also sold a lot of the stolen property around pawn shops. He has refused to name the actual burglar.
Judge David Saunders was told that Kerris had previously worked for the householder but had left on bad terms in August 2013.
He ruled out home detention as an option for Kerris’ sentencing on August 12, after remanding him in custody on a long list of charges he has now admitted including another burglary where 17 firearms were taken. Only four of the weapons have been recovered.
Defence counsel Louise Denton said she had explained to Kerris that home detention was unlikely but she had asked the judge to call for the necessary report for a community-based sentence.
However, Judge Saunders said he did not see home detention as a realistic option, and refused to ask probation to prepare the report. He also noted the mounting reparation bill against Kerris, who has been identified as a methamphetamine user.
He has now pleaded guilty to four charges of burglary, unlawfully taking a car, driving in breach of an alcohol interlock licence, unlawful possession of a pistol and ammunition, escaping from custody, possession of tools for burglary, possession of a pipe for smoking methamphetamine, and breach of bail.
“This is serious and significant offending,” said Judge Saunders.
On December 2, he took a vehicle from a car business in Rolleston by breaking the ignition system, and then drove it into the front doors of a petrol station at Hororata to steal cigarette lighters, small change, and the cash register.
He threw a car jack through the glass front doors of the West Melton Tavern and got away with bottles of alcohol and the cash register containing $105.
In late January he arranged for the Rolleston burglary where a co-offender forced a window and then slashed open packing boxes, threw the victim’s underwear around her room, took jewellery and credit cards, and threw items around the bedrooms. Police referred to the burglar “trashing the property”.
Items totalling $74,291 were stolen. Kerris sold many of them around pawn shops and the police have recovered $36,917 worth of them.
He told police he had set someone else up to commit the burglary for him when he found out from a Facebook posting that the householders were out of town.
In February he failed to attend court in Christchurch and was found at a hotel on Riccarton Road. When he was allowed to pick up some belongings from a hotel room, he bolted from his police escort, ran up a flight of stairs and jumped from a second storey window behind the hotel. He got away.
In March – while on the run, with a warrant issued for him at the Christchurch court – he burgled a house in Rolleston where he took 17 firearms from a gun safe. They were worth $25,700.
When he was caught on April 1, he had a black backpack containing a homemade bullet belt with 10 live .22 rounds, two boxes with 90 more rounds, and a sawn-off .22 calibre firearm. He said he had cut down the rifle himself.
He was also found with a ski mask, gloves, keys, and a screwdriver – items used for burglaries – and a glass pipe he said he used for smoking methamphetamine.
The police want $12,348 reparation for damage to the vehicle he took and the doors he damaged in two burglaries. For two other burglaries, the reparation totals $35,000 and he owes money to the pawn shops where he sold stolen goods. The value of the missing firearms has not yet been assessed.
Category: News
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
Connect
Connect with us via: