“You have caused the wider Nelson community to incur significant costs for remedying damage caused by your impulsive, greedy behaviour,” Judge Jo Rielly said in sentencing Wells.
Wells appeared tearfully on screen from prison, where he was held on remand, as he was sentenced in the Nelson District Court to a further two and a half years in prison.
Unannounced arrival ends with threat
One evening in late October 2023, Wells went unannounced to his former partner’s address, despite a long-standing condition in the protection order that he could only visit if permitted.
He had wanted to drop off some clothing for their son but refused to leave when asked, then began swearing at a man there.
It grew confrontational, which frightened the woman as she tried to separate the pair.
Wells shouted, “I’ll get you too, bitch”, as he finally left.
Judge Rielly acknowledged Wells had been motivated by a recent hurt over the couple’s child that had triggered his negative reaction and spiral into further offending.
Riding motorbike at 200km/h
On the afternoon of October 25, 2024, Wells was clocked by a police patrol car riding his motorbike at 123km/h along a rural highway in Motupiko, near Motueka.
Police activated their lights but Wells rode off at a speed estimated to be more than 200km/h.
Police abandoned the pursuit but two days later he was caught riding the same motorbike at 133km/h on a section of the Lewis Pass highway.
Again, he “accelerated heavily” when police activated their lights. He was thought to have been travelling at 170km/h before he was found near Murchison.
Just before that Wells had been sentenced to 130 hours of community work for an earlier breach, in that he had only completed half an hour of a previous community work sentence.
Police dog seriously injured
On March 19 this year, Wells ended up charged with unlawfully being on a property, possession of a knife, possession of utensils for cannabis and methamphetamine and injuring a police dog.
He and others went to Silvan Park mountainbike park on private property near Richmond. Access was through a locked gate, where vehicles were not permitted.
About 4.30pm, Wells arrived in his vehicle with fuel containers and bolt cutters. The group gained access to the property, then fled when they saw police arrive.
A police dog was deployed but when it tried to restrain Wells, he seriously injured its eye and it needed ongoing veterinary treatment.
Police found he had a knife, cannabis bong and meth pipe in his possession.
Wells told police he hadn’t intended to commit a crime and that he had “just gone for a drive”.
Burglary damages 1850s house
The crime spree ended with the burglary of Broadgreen House in July, when Wells took copper downpipes and damaged the slate roof of the 1850s cob building while scaling it.
Judge Rielly considered the burglary, which left the building needing $45,000 of repairs, as the lead charge.
Defence lawyer Josh Friend said inquiries revealed the Nelson City Council did not have insurance to cover the damage because of the costs associated with insuring historic property.
It therefore had to draw on a special contingency fund that would cover half the repair cost, with the remainder coming from the council’s maintenance fund.
From an adjusted starting point of three years and three months in prison, which factored in Wells’ offending while on bail, he was given credit for his guilty pleas and for his personal circumstances.
Judge Rielly noted Wells had been raised in state care from the age of 18 months and had been subjected to abuse and suffered an “extreme sense of abandonment”.
She said it was clear from a letter he had written to the court that he had taken time to think about things, was motivated to get better and to re-engage with the workforce.
He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on the lead charge of burglary, plus further prison terms on the other charges, to be served concurrently.
He was disqualified from driving for six months and nine months respectively on the failing to stop charges.
Judge Rielly said it was unrealistic to impose a full reparation order for the damage to Broadgreen, despite the fact she would have liked to.
Instead, Wells was ordered to pay the 10% or $4500 he had earlier agreed to, once released from prison.
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.