Acting Senior Sergeant Scott Munro:

Three youths aged 14, 15 and 16 have been arrested after a fleeing driver
incident across the Hawke’s Bay area this morning.

Police received a report of a Toyota vehicle driving erratically in Napier
about 7am.

The car had been reported stolen from Gisborne overnight.

The Toyota vehicle was later observed in Napier, but sped away when spotted
by Police patrols.

The vehicle was fitted with a GPS tracker.

Police did not pursue and instead maintained a safe distance from the vehicle
and placed staff at wider cordons.

The vehicle was successfully spiked on a rural road heading towards Taupō.

The vehicle was driven on its tyre rims until it became undrivable and
eventually stopped.

Three youths were arrested and taken into custody.

No one was injured during the incident.

Police take fleeing driver incidents very seriously.

In the event we do not pursue at the time due to safety concerns, we make
extensive follow-up enquiries to hold those responsible to account.

In this case, we were fortunate the vehicle had a tracking device.

We are committed to keeping our community safe and we will not tolerate
dangerous behaviour on our roads, antisocial behaviour, or theft.

We will do all we can to hold these offenders to account.

All three youths are facing a variety of charges, one for breaching bail
conditions.

Enquiries are underway regarding two other vehicles stolen in Gisborne at
around the same time as the Toyota, and one of those vehicles has been
recovered already.

All three youths appeared today in Youth Court.

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