Northland news in brief: Cricket boss warns of scam; and two-lane bridge for Taumarere?

Northland Cricket boss Stephen Cunis is warning of an email scam doing the rounds that is purportedly from him and the Northland Cricket Association.

Cricket boss warns of scam

Northland Cricket Association is warning of an email phishing scam doing the rounds supposedly from the association's boss seeking payment of an invoice. The Northern Advocate received an email purportedly from NCA general manager Stephen Cunis seeking payment of an invoice and signed by Cunis' nickname Cuni. However, knowing the newspaper did not have any accounts with NCA, and suspecting it was a scam, it called Cunis who confirmed that it was indeed a phishing scam. Cunis said he had fielded numerous calls yesterday from people over the email, which he believes has been sent to more than 4500 people. ''It's scam, don't open it and just delete it,'' he said. The email came from the address StephenC@northcricket.co.nz and had all the correct information, including contact numbers, for NCA and Cunis

Test negative after weak positive

As the country moved into level 1 restrictions yesterday there were no new cases reported in the country for the 18th day in a row. But health chief Ashley Bloomfield revealed the Ministry of Health was notified yesterday morning of a possible case within the Auckland District Health Board which came back as a "weak positive" and made a "few hearts flutter". But a second test came back as negative. He said it couldn't be guaranteed there wouldn't be another case found within New Zealand. The total number of confirmed cases remains at 1154, with the total confirmed and probable cases at 1504.

Two-lane bridge for Taumarere?

Ōkaihau-based NZ Transport Agency board member Ken Rintoul has hinted that the next big roading project in the Mid North will be a two-lane bridge at Taumarere, east of Kawakawa, to replace the current one-way Tirohanga Bridge. Rintoul was speaking at the launch of the Puketona Junction roundabout project on Tuesday, where he said other changes coming soon included speed limit reductions on four sections of Far North state highway. Tirohanga Bridge was one of National's ''Ten Bridges'' pledged in the 2015 byelection.

Jury trials to resume in August

Jury trials will resume in Northland and nationwide from the first week in August Chief Justice Helen Winkelmann said. The Chief Justice took the precautionary step of suspending all jury trials on March 18, a week before wide-ranging public health restrictions were introduced in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Close attention will continue to be paid to hygiene in all court houses and as before, persons summoned for jury service who are unwell, or whose personal circumstances prevent them from serving at this time, can apply to be excused.

Hour-long power cut

A Transpower fault at Kaikohe saw a power cut to 31,000 customers across the Far North for more than an hour on Monday morning. Transpower NZ corporate communications manager Deborah Gray said the outage was reported at 8.46am. Gray said there was work being on one circuit which was shut down but a second circuit had tripped causing the mass outage. A risk assessment was carried out followed by an inspection before power was restored. The outage affected Top Energy customers from about Towai north to Kaitaia and came back online from 10am.