NEW ZEALAND COMPUTER THIEVES ADMIT GUILT Court story: Courtnews.co.nz | News from Christchurch courts:

September 23, 2009
Five admit Operation Wizard computer thefts

Five people have admitted their involvement in a computer theft ring busted by the Christchurch police in June last year after a four-month investigation.

They have all pleaded guilty at a series of pre-trial hearings in the Christchurch District Court, but three other people are denying the conspiracy and a their jury trial date may be set on Friday.

At the end of the investigation, a large police team worked on 180 personal computers, laptops and other electronic gear seized in the Operation Wizard police raids on June 25, 2008.

Ten people were finally arrested and 98 charges laid.

Legal arguments on two of those arrested followed a two-week depositions hearing held in March.

But in the months since then, a total of five of the accused have pleaded guilty before trial and they have been remanded for sentencing all together on October 22.

The last of those pleas was entered today by Donald Christopher John Williams, an unemployed 26-year-old now living in Nelson, who admitted a charge of conspiring with other named people to steal the computer gear.

He was remanded on bail and Judge Michael Crosbie ordered a pre-sentence report and a report on his suitability for home detention.

Earlier in the day, Timothy James Fahey, an unemployed 39-year-old, pleaded guilty to two charges of stealing computer gear from shops. In one case, the gear consisted of an ipod and headphones worth $909. He was granted bail.

Brent John Davie, an unemployed 36-year-old central Christchurch man, was remanded in custody after admitting the conspiracy to steal charge. Judge Crosbie said he would not ask for a home detention report because Davie’s previous convictions made a prison sentence inevitable.

At earlier sessions, Christchurch woman Jessica Anne Strathdee pleaded guilty to shoplifting computer gear, and an unemployed Cheviot man, Dennis Mark Quinn, admitted the conspiracy to steal offence. They were remanded on bail for sentencing and home detention reports were sought.