Red Zone pass withdrawn from worker found guilty of burglary.
A demolition worker has lost his red-zone pass but avoided jail after admitting burgling a red-stickered and abandoned Dallington house.
Defence counsel April Kelland said Childson Latu, 23, and an alleged co-offender had been talking about red-zone properties after a church function and went for a look on October 19.
They took property out of an unlocked garage and stacked it up, but ran off when they were reported and the police arrived.
Kelland said they then gave themselves up.
Latu had been working on the Hotel Grand Chancellor demolition and his employer was hoping he could now resume that work.
Kelland said Latu had appreciated and enjoyed working in Christchurch.
His employer – who spoke to Christchurch District Court Judge David Saunders at sentencing today – has given him other intermittent work in other parts of the city because Latu’s red zone pass was immediately withdrawn after his arrest.
He also told Judge Saunders that Latu was seen as having leadership potential and was employed as a supervisor.
“He is capable of not only working on his own but supervising others.”
He hoped that once the sentencing was over, Latu would be able to get back to the main job on the hotel, which is inside the central-city red zone.
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