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Franz Josef’s mechanic, Clive Jenkins, 40, was killed in a shed fire on his property in 2016.
A West Coast mechanic who died in a fire in his garage had been charged with defrauding his main customer weeks earlier.
An investigation into the death of 40-year-old Clive Raymond Jenkins in September 2016 began in Christchurch District Court on Monday before Coroner Marcus Elliot.
Jenkins’ body was cremated in the fire on his Franz Josef property. A shotgun was found near the body.
A call 111, made on September 13 at 7:38 p.m., was played on the court. On the call, a witness, whose name is withheld, told police that he had gone “crazy.”
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During the call, he recounted how he was watching the garage explode and told operator 111 that Jenkins had removed weapons from his safe. He stood on the line as the fire burned, saying Jenkins was going to get hurt.
Joanne Carroll / Fairfax NZ
Franz Alpine Retreat manager Keith Hartley describes the fire scene inside a workshop in Franz Josef. (Video first published in September 2016)
The witness was sitting in the living room of the building that housed the garage when a charger bucket smashed into the wall, coming very close to her.
He looked into the garage and smelled gasoline and diesel. The bucket appeared to contain oil and the garage floor was gleaming. He managed to escape and ran out onto the main road to call 111.
Evidence from the hearing was that Jenkins had told his partner to leave earlier that day and told him to pack his bags.
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The scene of the fire in September 2016.
The court heard that Jenkins was operating a contract with AA as a call operator at the time and police had received a complaint that he was defrauding the system out of an amount of approximately $ 30,000 by overestimating miles driven. He had known about the complaint for about eight weeks.
The local council was chasing him for a construction that he claimed needed a permit.
Things
Jenkins’ friends say he was a “charming, gentle, helpful and kind man.”
The court heard that Jenkins was a heavy drinker, but could function well.
On the day of his death, he began drinking at around 2 p.m. and five weeks before his death he had disappeared. A witness found a note addressed to a friend and his mother saying “I’m sorry.”
Jenkins’ friends said he was a “charming, gentle, helpful and kind man.”
His former partner Michelle May told the hearing that he had started a relationship with Jenkins in 2008 and they had become business partners in a machine shop operation in Franz Josef. Jenkins had previously spent a great deal of time working for an outdoor theater company in Switzerland and had a strong connection to Fox Glacier, even though his family was from Invercargill.
They built a large shed with houses at one end and a garage at the other. At the end of 2015 they decided to separate and the assets had been divided amicably.
She moved in 2016, but kept in touch with him to make sure he managed. He knew another woman had moved in with him in 2016, but he never mentioned her. He brought up the subject of AA but didn’t think he had done anything wrong.
They had talked the day she died when he called her at 7:20 pm and spoke for about 8 minutes. It looked flat and he said it didn’t feel right. When he left the business, he still owed about $ 230,000 on a mortgage, but it was manageable.
Bruce Gibbons, who was a good friend of Jenkins, said that after death he went looking for a jet boat that Jenkins had worked on and was using. In it he found five rifles and $ 3,500 in Swiss money.
Jenkins had put his dogs in a vehicle parked outside the facility and had looked after the dogs for a week.
The investigation continues.
