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Electronic bail-breaching burglar must pay reparation to victims

Fran Chin frances.chin@stuff.co.nz

A judge has ordered a burglar who stole items worth $43,000 while on electronic bail to make reparation payments to three of his victims.

Nicholas John Gear was sentenced to a three-year prison term by Judge Tony Zohrab at the Nelson District Court on Thursday, on multiple charges of theft and burglary.

Gear had previously appeared before the court, where it was revealed that he had been linked to 10 burglaries in the Wakefield area over Labour Weekend in 2020.

Police found Gear ‘‘out of breath and sweating’’ outside a house, with his electronic monitoring ankle bracelet inside his trackpants, the court heard. He later claimed that the bracelet had fallen off while he was moving furniture.

Judge Zohrab said Gear’s offending took place between October 23 and 30, 2020, and targeted properties in the Wakefield and Brightwater areas. The burglaries did not involve entering homes, and focused on vehicles and garages.

Gear had taken tools and hunting and farming equipment, including chainsaws, radios and batteries.

Gear had TradeMe accounts set up to sell the stolen items.

Statements given by victims of Gear’s burglaries said their children had suffered emotional harm from the burglaries.

One said their children had been affected ‘‘massively’’, asking if the ‘‘bad man will be coming back again’’, and fretting over whether the doors had been locked before they went to sleep.

Defence lawyer John Sandston said Gear had grown up surrounded by drug culture and law-breaking, and had clearly been copying the behaviour shown to him by his father.

Gear had been a carpet and vinyl layer and had run a successful business, but numerous factors in his upbringing had contributed to him being in court, Sandston said.

At the time of his offending, Gear had been ‘‘controlled by meth,’’ Sandston said.

He was now keeping away from drugs, and had expressed remorse for his actions.

Crown prosecutor Abigail Goodison recommended a starting point of three years and nine months imprisonment for Gear’s sentence, due to the significant property loss experienced by his victims. She estimated that approximately $43,000 worth of items had been stolen.

Judge Zohrab said Gear’s offending while on electronically monitored bail was a serious aggravating factor. He had removed his tracker to commit the burglaries.

He sentenced Gear to three years and one month in prison, and order him to pay $700 reparation to each of the three victims who had submitted victim impact reports.

In an ideal world, Gear would pay back all his victims, the judge said, but it would not be possible to order this, as it would potentially revictimise them due to Gear’s inability to pay everyone.

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en-nz

2022-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281668258599915

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