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Source: ONE News
Terence James Baker has hundreds of convictions, but he set a new low with his guilty pleas on Thursday.
The 59-year-old has admitted abusing passers-by in central Christchurch, stealing from a busker, and assaulting a blind man.
Baker is a regular attendee at the courthouse where a judge once commented that it was necessary to cut down a forest every time the police had to print out his criminal record.
On Thursday he was back in court for four offences committed this week: Breach of the inner city liquor ban, assault, theft, and disorderly behaviour, Christchurch Court News website reports.
Police prosecutor Anselm Williams says Baker had been in Chancery Lane, which runs to Cathedral Square, at a busy time on Tuesday afternoon, being aggressive and abusing passing pedestrians.
Later that day he went to a busker on the corner of Cashel and High Streets, in the City Mall, and became aggressive and threatening there when he took $2 from the performer's hat.
On Wednesday, he approached a blind man who spends the day busking in Cathedral Square. The men knew each other, and Baker regularly tries to get money from the performer.
Baker asked the man for $3.50 which he said he had previously given him.
When the man refused, Baker grabbed him by the shoulders and shook and pushed him before swearing and biking away.
He was found with a bottle of drink.
"Anybody steals from me, I steal from them, Your Honour," Baker proclaimed from the dock.
Defence counsel Lee-Lee Heah said Baker was prepared to pay a fine for the continued nuisance offending.
Judge Raoul Neave fined him $200 on each charge.
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