A dubious Greymouth judge has dismissed a careless driving charge against a crashed vehicle's owner after alibi evidence was offered in his defence.
It means Brian Andrew Robinson, 47 will not have to pay a power company the $4482 it was seeking from him after the crashed car slammed intoa power pole.
Mr Robinson was the registered owner of the Mitsubishi Pajero which failed to take a moderate bend at Dillmanstown about 3km east of Kumara at 9pm on August 5, smashing a power pole at the base and cutting power to the region. The driver then walked to a nearby house, telling the occupant Michelle Spafford that he had crashed the car but was uninjured.
Ms Spafford, although she knew Robinson, did not name him to Constable Paul Watson, instead giving a description that fitted Robinson well.
Documents in the car showed that it belonged to Robinson, and Ms Spafford, a couple of days later, picked him out of a montage of eight photos. The day after the crash, about 1.30pm, Robinson called the Hokitika police station saying that someone had stolen his vehicle from Kumara overnight.
He had discovered the crashed car at 7am that morning when his host - he had slept the night at Kumara - was driving him home so that he could feed his animals.
The host, Peter Jenkins, said that Robinson had arrived at his place about 6pm on August 5 and did not leave until the following morning. He went out to get in his car about 7am but came back in a panic because it was not there.
Jenkins could not say why Robinson did not immediately report the vehicle stolen, but said that he was concerned about his animals and wanted to get home and feed them.
