Caravan ‘squatter’ pleads guilty
A burglar caught sleeping in a caravan on a Rolleston property has pleaded guilty and now faces sentencing next month on a total of 10 charges.
Raniera Smyth, 20, told police that he had been sleeping in the caravan in a yard at Rolleston Drive for two or three nights when he was found.
Police found him inside the caravan at 10.25pm on October 30.
The owners had noticed a window of the caravan had been smashed, and it appeared someone had been sleeping inside. They placed cardboard over the broken window and the next night they called the police when they saw the cardboard had been removed.
Smyth was inside.
He admitted being found unlawfully on the property, in a video-link from Christchurch Men’s Prison, at a Christchurch District Court session before Judge Alistair Garland.
He also admitted the burglary of a house on Othello Drive, Rolleston, just after midnight the night before he was caught.
He went into the house through an unlocked garage access door, and picked up an iPad mini. The woman resident woke to find him standing beside her bed, and he then made his getaway with the computer.
He told police he had gone to the house to look for something to sell.
Smyth was already due for sentence on five charges of burglary, two thefts, and being unlawfully in a yard – charges that had been transferred from the Gisborne District Court.
He will now be sentenced on all charges on December 20, in Christchurch. The case was referred for a restorative justice meeting with the victims, and for a pre-sentence report. Smyth remains in custody.
Category: News
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