Drunken burglary ends in court

A wild birthday celebration got a Blenheim man in trouble, before a sober moment saw him going to the police to tell them how he robbed a Greymouth hotel.

Details of Steven Rex Richards' drunken burglary came out in the Blenheim District Court after he yesterday admitted a charge of entering the Railway Hotel with intent to commit a crime. He was ordered to pay reparation of $474.50 and sentenced to six months supervision and 130 hours community work.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Graham Single said Richards, 49, a landscape gardener of Riversdale, had been drinking heavily while celebrating his birthday in Greymouth before the incident. About 1 am on January 11 he broke into the Railway Hotel and stole three bottles of liquor from the bar. Two days later he went to Blenheim Police Station to admit the crime, he said.

Defence lawyer John Holdaway said police would have been none the wiser about the burglary if Richards had not turned himself in.

Richards had done nothing like that since he was young, and was remorseful and wanted to pay for the damage he had done, he said.

- The Marlborough Express