Hamilton man who fled police, found hiding under house and blamed offending on mate ‘wearing same clothes as me’

A shotgun (not the one pictured) and five rounds of ammunition were found in the stolen vehicle Drew Michael Evans Hansen was driving in January this year. Photo / 123rf

After being told he was under arrest, Drew Hansen fled on foot through residential properties before being tracked by a police dog and found hiding under a house.

But when questioned by police the 32-year-old tried to claim they’d got the wrong guy.

Hansen told the officer it wasn’t him who had driven a stolen car, or driven dangerously and assaulted an officer, but rather his “friend that was wearing the same clothes” as him.

Hansen appeared in the Hamilton District Court yesterday for sentencing on multiple driving and firearm charges, along with resisting arrest and possession of a meth pipe charges.

Through his lawyer Gerard Walsh, he said he was now keen to clean up his act.

His collection of charges came from offending on January 9 this year when he was spotted by police driving a Mazda3 stolen from a Tamahere property in November last year.

He drove into the Dinsdale shopping centre, mounting a footpath into the carpark, before heading out onto Tuhikaramea Rd, driving “well above” the 50km/h speed limit.

Hansen was eventually stopped, placed under arrest, and told to put his hands behind his back, but instead, he turned and ran.

The officer chased after him into a neighbouring property and approached a fence before he turned and began throwing punches.

The officer used her OC spray to which Hansen yelled: “I will f****** knock you out, b****”. He continued to move towards her, throwing punches, as the constable took “evasive action” to avoid them.

He then jumped over a fence and was soon found under a house by a tracker dog but refused to come out.

When questioned, Hansen said the person they were looking for was his friend wearing the same clothes.

Police found a shotgun behind the driver’s seat in plain view along with five rounds of ammunition in a pouch and a glass meth pipe in the driver’s side sun visor.

‘Enough is enough’

Walsh told Judge Glen Marshall that Hansen had been at an Auckland rehabilitation facility prior to sentencing but they didn’t take sentenced prisoners so he now hoped to get into the Tai Aroha facility.

If he doesn’t get in there, Hansen hoped to get into another facility as his family had told him that “they’ve reached a point where enough is enough, and he understands that”.

Judge Marshall agreed with Walsh’s plan and sentenced Hansen to 21 months’ jail but gave him leave to apply for home detention if he got into the Tai Aroha rehab programme.

The judge also issued an order for the destruction of the utensils and ammunition and disqualified him from driving for one year.

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for nine years and has been a journalist for 20.