Waimea Weekly Locally Owned and Operated
Wednesday 1 June 2022
Wakefield burglar sent to prison TRACY NEAL
Open Justice Reporter
A short, sharp burglary spree left children in Wakefield so frightened they hid their pocket money under their pillows, afraid “the bad man would come back”.
The man responsible has been sent to prison for three years and one month, after attempts to halt his recidivist habits by electronic monitoring failed. Nicholas Gear struggled to convince a judge he planned to turn around his life, which was “con-
trolled by the scourge of Class A drugs”, his lawyer John Sandston said. While the burglary spree in Wakefield and Brightwater in October 2020 was “short and intensive”, it was not Gear’s first by any stretch.
It was another chapter in a life led as a “carbon copy of his father”, who had since moved on to a life free of crime, the court heard. “All he’s ever known is that when you need something, you steal it,” Crown prosecutor Abigail Goodison said.
In the Nelson District Court on Thursday, Gear appeared via audiovisual link, in a plain grey top and with his hair done neatly, knowing that he was going to prison.
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Do you own the region’s most banged up car? JO KENT The race is on to find the region’s most beat-up car for a group of local vehicle repair experts to restore as part of a competition launched this week. Dreamt up by Brightwater Motors, ‘Revive My Ride’ brings the mechanic’s workshop together with Motueka’s Spectrum Panel & Paint and Nelson’s Sky Automotive to deliver a mechanical, panel, paint and detailing revitalisation to the winning car, totalling up to $5000. T he four-week long competition invites the public to submit a car for restoration by sending in details, including a photograph and a short history of the vehicle. A panel of experts will then select finalists for a public vote managed through social media at the end of June. Brightwater Motors owner Dave Gilberd says the competition is a bit of a dream job. “It’s not often you have the time, or can bring the skillset together, to see a project like this through from woe to go. It’s the sort of work that led most of us into the business in the first place.” For Spectrum Panel & Paint, the project offers the perfect opportunity to
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Dream team: Dave Gilberd, Chevve Farrington Fry and Vitaliano Escobedo will transform one of the region’s most decrepit cars for a competition. Photo: Jo Kent.
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