Third person charged in ute theft

A third person has appeared in court in relation to the theft of a ute and this serious crash at Puketona on Monday.

A third person has appeared in court in relation to the theft of a ute that ended in dramatic chase and crash in which a police was lucky to escape serious injury.

Lawrence Wayne Taiapo, 24, was arrested on Thursday and appeared in the Whangarei District Court on Friday on two charges of burglary, three of unlawfully taking a motor vehicle, one of unlawfully interfering with a motor vehicle and another of theft of a handbag and its contents (valued at $1296.80).

Taiwhanga Niha, 19, of Pipiwai, and a 16-year-old had already appeared on Tuesday in the Kaikohe District Court and Kaikohe Youth Court, respectively, on charges of unlawfully getting into a ute, burglary and stealing a handbag.

Taiapo was remanded in custody for a bail application on Wednesday.

He was found hiding under a couch during a police search of a Whanagrei property. One of the unlawfully taking charges relates to the theft of a health board vehicle.

The charges the trio are facing stem from a stolen ute that was recognised by a Kaikohe resident on Monday from a post on the Northland Grapevine page.

Police chased the ute to Puketona Junction where it ran over road spikes and went out of control, hitting a bridge, then ramming a parked police car.

The officer had just taken a second set of spikes from the boot when he heard the ute smash into the bridge. It missed him by seconds and shunted his patrol car down a seven-metre bank. It is understood one of the youths tried to attack police and had to be restrained.

The only injuries, a gash to one leg, were suffered by the 16-year-old.