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Guardian
Ashburton
www.guardianONLINE.co.nz
Thursday, January 17, 2013
FIRST PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 27, 1879
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Daring opportunist thief operates in daytime ONLINE.co.nz
By Sam Morton
LEFT: Dodgy moment: The alleged culprit caught on CCTV camera, entering the house near the Coronation Park Holiday Park office reception block.
Check out our video East Street, contacted the Guardian after realising her cellphone, wallet and $100 of cash had been taken from the house she was temporarily staying - in the absence of motel owners Jamie and Tania Dalzell. Video footage released to the
Rural cops do not stand alone By Sam Morton Rural police officers operating alone often face risky situations, but help is never far away, according to the district’s top cop Dave Gaskin. His comments follow the alleged attack on Kawhia community sole police officer Constable Perry Griffin last week, during an arrest of a 19-year-old on an outstanding warrant, in Waikato. Mid-South Canterbury area commander Inspector Dave Gaskin said all police officers, particularly rural constables, regularly dealt with conflicting situations. However, most vehicles carry defensive weapons such as a gun and taser, which can be deployed if the officer feels their safety is being compromised – which rarely occurs in Mid Canterbury. “Quite often the rural officers, such as Methven and Rakaia, will approach their job differently to those operating in Ashburton ... it’s a different level of policing altogether. “Rural officers generally have a very close relationship with the rural fire service and local paramedics, as they know it is a reliable form of back-up in close vicinity,” Mr Gaskin said. In the Kawhia incident on Friday night, firefighters and local bystand-
ers were forced to intervene – prompting nationwide calls for more police officers in rural areas. Mr Gaskin believes dealing with threatening situations is all part of the job and insists help is only minutes away, should an officer get into a “dangerous” situation. “It’s a risky job and no matter what, we always have to consider and weigh up the level of risk before attending a job – rural or not. “Rural officers always build close relationships with the community they serve in and when you work in a rural area, you are most definitely known as a police officer. Your voice is the most powerful tool and more often than not, the officers can control the situation verbally. “Generally, all rural police officers are very experienced and have the ability to deal with and judge any situation they may be faced with ... they are exceptional at what they do,” he said. In Methven and Rakaia, the volunteer fire brigades are right behind their men on the frontline. Chief fire officer Selwyn Allred, of Methven, said one of the local police officers was a member of the brigade, which had helped form a tight-knit and effective relationship between the two services in the small community. “Our situation is a wee bit different, because in Methven it’s not a
one-man band. But, in saying that, the two police officers know that we would never be far away if they needed us – that’s a fact. “As long as we feel comfortable with the situation, I have no doubt our crews will step in and intervene if the scenario took a turn for the worse,” Mr Allred said. Rakaia’s chief fire officer Donald Dunlea said he was also right behind the local constable and revealed he would go to most lengths to help protect him, if the situation arose. “Jackso (Senior Constable Mike Jackson) knows that if he needs us, we can be there in less than four minutes, right outside the station. “He can page us, he can call us directly and I tell you what if someone kicked up a fuss, I’d put the hose on him ... no worries,” Mr Dunlea said. “Six of us and a policeman, nobody is going to do much against that, are they? – Jackso has a huge amount of respect in our community and most people will keep an eye out for him and his safety.” The Kawhia incident comes hot on the heels of recent attacks in the Northland region, where one officer was hit from behind with a brick and almost tasered. Following a series of other attacks in previous years, the Government passed a law to impose tougher penalties for assaulting police officers.
Guardian yesterday shows a young man, possibly in his mid-20s, wearing a bright green top and black track pants, enter the house after glancing into the office where Ms Shaw was sitting – only metres away from the house on Tuesday.
this all happened at 1pm in broad daylight ... only metres away from the office,” she said. Ms Shaw says she has since contacted the police about the incident, who are currently investigating. “I know I probably won’t ever get my money back or my cellphone, but I just want people to know this low-life is out there skulking the streets and entering houses in the Ashburton area. “I have a lot of people keeping an eye out for him around town, but I hope that by people seeing this in the Guardian, someone will recog-
nise the guy ... the whole thing is so creepy,” Ms Shaw said. According to Ms Shaw, the man was not a guest at the motel, but she believed he was a local. She is now urging members of the public to help the police identify the thief and has handed the video footage over to the police, in an attempt to identify the culprit. Ashburton Police could not be reached for further comment yesterday. *If you recognise this man, contact the Ashburton Police on 307-8400.
Tennis tournament finally kicks off
ONLINE.co.nz
A motel employee is warning Ashburton motels and local residents to be more vigilant, after a young man entered her property and stole valuable belongings. Tracey Shaw, an employee at Coronation Park Holiday Park on
The man, who appears to enter the property from the street, clearly sees Ms Shaw is not looking in his direction and enters the house. He can be seen in the window for a number of minutes, before exiting the same door and immediately waving to Ms Shaw as she catches a glimpse of the man. “I was waving my finger at him to ‘‘come here’’, because I wondered why he was so close to the house – but he just kept waving back and at the time I couldn’t get the person I was talking to off the phone. “It was such a creepy incident,
To see more or purchase photos Photo Joseph Johnson 160113-JJ-006
Mid Canterbury’s Ashleigh Leonard lunges to make a forehand return during her first round match in the New Zealand Under 16
Championships at the Ashburton Tennis Centre yesterday. The opening day was a washout but the tournament kicked into
overdrive catching up to the original schedule by the close of play, advancing to the quarter-finals in the boys and girls’ singles and the
girls’ doubles, but they may be hit with another delay today if the forecast showers turn up. Local talent toppled, P12
New stops, starts expected to spark more Novopay errors By Myles Hume Just when schools thought Novopay’s woes were starting to be ironed out, a fresh batch of errors appear to be on their way. Schools have been battling with pre-Christmas botch-ups that saw tens of thousands of dollars sucked out of local schools’ operations grants, most notably, Ashburton and Mount Hutt College, with the money given to
people who were no longer associated with the schools. It has left huge holes in both the college’s bank accounts and the money is likely not to be returned until school starts back in February. And now, another disaster is looming in the not so distant future. The Ministry of Education is warning schools there will be underpayments or no pay at all in the first two pay rounds
to 40,000 school staff. Support staff who have their pay resumed on January 23, newly graduated teachers and staff who have transferred to other schools are expected to fall victim to the shoddy $29 million pay roll system. “Put it this way, things are pretty bad without a warning, so how bad is it going to be with a warning,” Ashburton College principal Grant McMillan said. “The biggest concern is that
there will be huge frustration, stress and anxiety for thousands around the country,” he said. The college will have 12 new staff added to the payroll, on top of others who have had their contracts extended to add to the complications. “We are very nervous, especially on the fortnight that will follow the first pay round (February 6),” Mr McMillan said. “It’s a time of year when we are trying to get courses underway
and classes settled, it’s a really busy time of year.” Mount Hutt College principal John Schreurs said all they can do is wait for the inevitable, even though his administration staff worked hard at the end of last year to have the start-of-year data ready to submit on Monday, telling the ministry who will be joining the school as well as details about staff employment. He said the college had three people coming back from leave
and at least two new staff members joining the fray. Mr Schreurs feared the additional work it was going to heap on to his administration staff, who were already chasing the $16,000 that was taken out of their operations grant by Novopay and paid to former staff members. “We have past people from the school being paid and they have contacted us. We have asked them to put that money aside and we will figure out how to get
that,” Mr Schreurs said. Ministry of Education workforce group manager Rebecca Elvey said the first two pay rounds will be a blip in the system which is improving. “The trend has absolutely been heading in the right direction but I would also stress that there are two pays coming up, both of which include new staff starting at new schools, so both of those I suspect won’t be consistent with the trend,” Ms Elvey said.
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