New Zealand police investigate alleged thefts from Christchurch demolition sites.
Police are dealing with complaints of demolition firms taking goods from earthquake-damaged central Christchurch businesses.
Canterbury area commander Superintendent Dave Cliff said yesterday police had been contacted about property being stolen. He would not talk about specific cases.
“It’s not a very large number of issues I’m aware of.” Cliff said it was illegal for demolition companies to take goods from demolished buildings.
“The accredited demolition companies have no rights to charge to salvage property from the buildings they are working on,” he said. “Firms being employed to demolish cannot take property and retain it. It belongs to the owner.”
Cliff said Civil Defence had given assurances that goods taken from buildings would be returned to the owners or tenants.
An inner-city business owner said yesterday he had seen demolition companies take native timber from his demolished building, believed to be in Lichfield St.
“The issue here is that there is a wholesale mandate for looting to go on for contractors. Material has been taken and, had we not been there and seen what happens, then this would have gone on unbeknownst to us,” he told Radio New Zealand.
Read more here.
