A Rotorua man accused of leading police on a high-speed car chase is also alleged to have assaulted a local dairy owner the previous day.
Nigel Caleb Dixon, 27, of Fairy Springs, appeared in the Rotorua District Court yesterday before Justice of the Peace Patrick Lawrence.
He faced a raft of charges including dishonestly taking a blue Subaru vehicle, assault with a steel extendable baton in an attempt to rob Hillcrest Dairy, stealing petrol worth $120 from Fairy Springs Z Energy service station, entering a building on State Highway 30, Rotoiti, without authority with intent to commit a crime, theft of petrol at Caltex Service Station in Whakatane, operating a motor vehicle on State Highway 30 recklessly and assaulting a police sergeant using a vehicle as a weapon.
These offences are alleged to have occurred between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. The female dairy owner was shaken and treated by ambulance staff for minor injuries after she was attacked on Christmas morning.
The woman's husband said a man entered the store, where she was working alone, and asked for "money and rollies" before jumping the counter and swinging an extendable baton at her. The man drove off at speed, police said.
On Thursday, police used a helicopter, road spikes and multiple vehicles in pursuit of the driver of a stolen car who had travelled from Rotorua to Whakatane via Paengaroa, back through Edgecumbe before crashing near Lake Rotoma.
Dixon was yesterday remanded in custody and will reappear in the Rotorua District Court on January 6.
Dixon appeared in a story in the Rotorua Daily Post in October 2012, talking about his desire to help police by working with young people.