Nightingale was serving a home detention sentence when, on July 24, 2024, he stole a $20,000 Mazda ute from a commercial property in Whitianga.<\/p>\n
The ute was fitted with GPS, and a finance company tracked it to a Kaimarama Rd property.<\/p>\n
It had been painted with white house paint, and the wheels had been changed, but Nightingale\u2019s fingerprint was found on a broken broom that was in the boot.<\/p>\n
The next day, he was spotted by police walking out of Whitianga Four Square, and as officers went to approach him, he got into a black Holden.<\/p>\n
He \u201caggressively\u201d sped off, driving around 100km\/h in a 50km\/h zone.<\/p>\n
On December 22, 2024, he was seen again by police who tried to apprehend him by using their vehicle to block his.<\/p>\n
This time, Nightingale reversed at speed backwards, smashing into the front of the patrol car. <\/p>\n
He sped off, again driving in excess of 100km\/h in a 50km\/h zone.<\/p>\n
Four days later, he was spotted again, this time parked in his car under some trees on Harsant Ave, Hahei.<\/p>\n
Nightingale sped off onto the beach before driving back to Harsant Ave. As there were pedestrians around, police opted not to pursue him.<\/p>\n
Swerving, scraping, and speeding<\/p>\n
On November 14, Nightingale and Prujean stole a Toyota Hilux from the Kaitarakihi Walking Track near Thames.<\/p>\n
Four days later, they backed the ute up to a $20,000 caravan parked on a Matangi property and drove to Whitianga.<\/p>\n
However, due to Nightingale\u2019s driving, police received several phone calls, and a patrol car caught up with them at road works on the Whangapoua Hill.<\/p>\n
He sped off, travelling at such speed that the caravan swayed back and forth, as he went through Whitianga and south to 309 Rd, which he turned onto.<\/p>\n
Nightingale then turned onto a smaller gravel road.<\/p>\n
Police lost sight of them briefly before the vehicle reappeared out of a side road, but without the caravan, and heading towards Coromandel town.<\/p>\n
The car swerved into the patrol car, scraping it, as Nightingale sped past.<\/p>\n
Daniel Nightingale and Braden Prujean dumped their vehicle just off Tapu-Coroglen Rd, pictured, before Prujean set it on fire. Image \/ Google maps<\/p>\n
He drove at excessive speeds, cutting corners, and when entering Coromandel town, accelerated heavily and continued cutting into the path of oncoming traffic.<\/p>\n
Prujean, meanwhile, sat in the front passenger seat, and an unidentified woman sat in the back.<\/p>\n
Police eventually managed to spike the vehicle\u2019s tyres, and the pair dumped it on Flays Rd, before fleeing on foot.<\/p>\n
Nightingale approached a home owner, went into his kitchen, and grabbed a butcher\u2019s knife, before waving it around, threateningly, demanding his car keys.<\/p>\n
He fled with the keys as Prujean and the female waited outside before they all left in the victim\u2019s Rav 4.<\/p>\n
By this time, the police Eagle had been called, and was monitoring the Rav from the air, watching it as Nightingale drove it at speed back through Coromandel town, at times exceeding 150km\/h.<\/p>\n
He made it all the way down to Tapu and turned onto Tapu-Coroglen Rd.<\/p>\n
It was there they dumped the Rav, and Prujean threw a Molotov cocktail inside, setting it on fire and reducing it to a burnt-out shell.<\/p>\n
Despite \u201cextensive efforts\u201d by police who searched the bush, none of them were found.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s a miracle he hasn\u2019t killed somebody\u2019<\/p>\n
In court, Judge Crayton said Nightingale\u2019s aggravated burglary was the most serious as it involved a confrontation with a victim, in his 70s, in his home, and theft of his car.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt must have been an extremely terrifying incident for him,\u201d the judge remarked.<\/p>\n
In discussions with Crown prosecutor James Lewis, Judge Crayton described Nightingale\u2019s offending as \u201cmeth-addled\u201d, with him now clocking up his fourth and fifth reckless driving charges, and six and seventh convictions for driving while disqualified.<\/p>\n
Judge Crayton said one day Nightingale was \u201cgoing to kill somebody\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a miracle that he hasn\u2019t,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe falls absolutely squarely into all the bad side effects of methamphetamine abuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cMethamphetamine is one of the ugliest drugs that there could possibly be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite that, the judge said it was obvious from submissions that when he was drug-free, Nightingale could lead a law-abiding life.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd are a completely different person to the person who lives on offending and a somewhat chaotic … and paranoid existence.\u201d<\/p>\n
After taking a starting point of six years\u2019 jail, Judge Crayton jailed Nightingale for four years and four months, and disqualified him from driving for eight years.<\/p>\n
\u2018Living off their wits\u2019<\/p>\n
Prujean faced four additional charges of obtaining by deception from February and March 2024.<\/p>\n
This offending included Prujean pocketing around $800 for items he offered for sale on Facebook but never handed over, receiving a stolen $3000 bike, and committing low-level thefts from the Warehouse and Pak\u2019nSave in October 2024.<\/p>\n
Judge Crayton noted Prujean had good family support, who were in court for his sentencing.<\/p>\n
He was also someone who could be productive in the community and didn\u2019t pass the blame for his offending.<\/p>\n
However, a pre-sentence report detailed his \u201cchaotic lifestyle\u201d and depicted someone \u201cliving off their wits\u201d.<\/p>\n
He jailed Prujean for two years and 11 months and ordered he pay the car theft victim $1000 emotional harm reparation, along with reparation for his Facebook thefts.<\/p>\n
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nightingale was serving a home detention sentence when, on July 24, 2024, he stole a $20,000 Mazda ute…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[70355,2840,579,74,95,31470,41187,6799,19757,22506,6147,18829,15453,27497,20486,73646,38692,1868,49505,165346,111,43,139,142087,69,675,8442,170070,85522,4744,223,2846,12419,2044,24358,102],"class_list":{"0":"post-312770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-destroying","9":"tag-across","10":"tag-addiction","11":"tag-after","12":"tag-and","13":"tag-braden","14":"tag-caravan","15":"tag-cars","16":"tag-cocktail","17":"tag-coromandel","18":"tag-crime","19":"tag-daniel","20":"tag-elderly","21":"tag-grips","22":"tag-highspeed","23":"tag-knifepoint","24":"tag-lands","25":"tag-meth","26":"tag-methaddled","27":"tag-molotov","28":"tag-new-zealand","29":"tag-news","30":"tag-newzealand","31":"tag-nightingale","32":"tag-nz","33":"tag-police","34":"tag-prison","35":"tag-prujeans","36":"tag-pursuit","37":"tag-stealing","38":"tag-the","39":"tag-them","40":"tag-threatening","41":"tag-time","42":"tag-wave","43":"tag-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}