Crimeline has changed. The Crimeline report is now based on a police media briefing, and is written by the Wānaka App.

The past week has been a busy one for Wānaka police, with the focus being road policing.

Constable Dean Harbison said checkpoints were held on Friday and Saturday (December 22-23), with 138 vehicles stopped and no alcohol offences detected.

General patrols around Wānaka on Saturday found alcohol related disorder and a suspected assault which police are now making enquiries into.

In a “pretty common” scenario, two intoxicated males were given rides home by police.

A three-car accident at the corner of SH6 and Halliday Road on Saturday (December 22) was caused when a rental car heading to the Lavender Farm over-shot the entrance and braked. The car following it rear-ended the rental car, and another car rear-ended the second car.

Read more: Six injured, one serious, in Wānaka crash

Constable Harbison said the key message from the accident was to “maintain your following distance”, which is significant in a 100kph zone.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen in front of you, particularly this time of year. You could have anything pull out, such as a cyclist on the road.”

Alcohol was involved in a family harm incident on Saturday evening. No arrests were made.

Constable Harbison reminded residents and visitors that a 24-hour alcohol ban is in place around Wānaka. A few breaches of the ban during the weekend led to infringements being issued. There was also a warning for urinating in a public place, and one arrest.

It was a very busy Christmas Eve, he said. 

An alarm was raised after clothing and personal belongings were found on the Wānaka lakefront in the early hours of Christmas Day, but it turned out that a group of people were swimming after the bars had closed.

Christmas Day was quieter, with the focus on road policing. Traffic was generally pretty good, with one infringement for unsafe overtaking.

A young boy was injured at the Lismore Bike Park and airlifted to Dunedin Hospital.

One incident on Boxing Day (December 26) took up police time after a child rang police claiming to have been kidnapped. The false alarm led to police having a chat with the child and their family.

Alcohol: Limit your intake

“As always the message is around alcohol,” Constable Harbison said.

“Not just tourists, locals as well; if you’re in town enjoying the festive season limit your intake. If you don’t limit your intake, look after each other. There’s also a responsibility there for our duty managers and our bars to comply with the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act.

“It’s a team effort to look after our town and make sure that people enjoy it but don’t go silly.”

Constable Harbison also warned people not to supply alcohol to people who are under age.

“Parents bring their kids and four or five of their mates to Wānaka and think it’s OK to supply them with alcohol and let them loose, which it’s not,” he said.

“Parents can be prosecuted for supplying their underagers with alcohol, unsupervised, which happened last year.”

Last year’s prosecution was successful, he added.

Constable Harbison also advised people to take care on the roads.

“There’s an awful lot of people travelling. People seem to be in a hurry to get here, there, and everywhere… Just be patient, and get to your destination safely.

Motorists should continue to expect “a heavy police presence on the roads”.

Finally, there is a bumper lot of lost property at the police station, he said. 

Call 111 when you need an emergency response from police, fire or ambulance.

Call 105 to report things that don’t need urgent police assistance.

Call *555 to report road incidents that are urgent but not life-threatening.

To make an anonymous crime report contact Crime Stoppers.

PHOTO: Wānaka App