Christchurch man freed after 12 months in jail over flawed bike theft case

Matthew Morris Clarke walked out of a Christchurch court on a clear afternoon, his case officially ended.

He had spent the previous 12 months in custody while police accused him of stealing bicycles and scooters across the city. Judge Jane Farish dismissed the remaining charges after finding that officers did not have enough evidence to arrest him in the first place. The court ruling, released to media organisation NZME, details a series of investigative errors that unraveled the prosecution.

Police alleged Clarke stole vehicles from schools and city council facilities between September 2024 and September 2025. They eventually laid 87 charges, though the Crown later withdrew 24. Clarke’s lawyer, Mitch Whitford, applied in April to have the rest dismissed. The case fell apart when Whitford challenged the search warrants used by investigators. Judge Farish wrote that the warrant application relied on a police officer’s statement identifying Clarke as a close match in CCTV footage. However, that officer was never called as a witness and had not provided a formal statement. The court did not know how well the officer knew Clarke or what specific material he had viewed.

The judge also noted that while Clarke wore a blue jacket, distinctive shoes, and held bolt cutters matching items in the footage, the offender’s face was not clearly visible. She found the evidence insufficient to prove Clarke was the man on screen. Problems also emerged with a warrant to search a Christchurch property. Police provided no details on who owned or lived at the address, which the court later learned housed multiple people. Judge Farish ruled the warrant was unjustified. The Crown conceded it could not argue for the evidence’s admission, citing a litany of errors.

The judge identified serious disclosure failures as well. Police had told the court they could not find an application for one of the search warrants, claiming it was stored offsite. When the judge asked staff to look for it, the document was located in under five minutes. Judge Farish found the police explanations incorrect. Three charges remained after the warrant evidence was excluded, but issues with the arrest itself complicated matters. An officer had stopped Clarke riding a bicycle and arrested him for receiving stolen goods, a charge that was never filed. Judge Farish questioned why he was arrested based only on suspicion. She noted police should have kept him under surveillance to catch him in the act.

Inspector Glenda Barnaby, the Christchurch police metro area prevention manager, told NZME that police made a procedural error that was not identified until the court reviewed the case documents. She said the force acknowledged and accepted the decision.