Indiana Tuhaka no-show to court after allegedly driving stolen scissor lift down Hindley St in Adelaide’s CBD

The man who was allegedly caught driving a stolen scissor lift drunk through the CBD has had a warrant issued for his arrest after he failed to show up for court.

A man has failed to appear in court for the first time after he was allegedly caught driving a stolen scissor lift drunk through the CBD.

Indiana Te Awarau Tuhaka, 26, had a warrant issued for his arrest, with police bail excluded after he was a no-show in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Friday.

Around 4am on September 10, police were monitoring the CBD’s CCTV when they saw a man driving a scissor lift down Hindley Street.

Video footage posted to Instagram allegedly shows Mr Tuhaka driving the forklift down Leigh St with a passers-by saying: “Mate, there’s a police station”.

Mr Tuhaka had allegedly taken the scissor lift from a construction site before driving it along King William, Currie and Leigh streets.

He was then stopped and arrested by police after he drove along the footpath on Hindley St.

Indiana Tuhaka allegedly stole a scissor lift from a construction site and drunkenly drove it through the CBD.

He was a no-show in court on Friday.

Mr Tuhaka was breath-tested and allegedly produced a blood alcohol reading of 0.138, almost three times the limit.

Mr Tuhaka, of Lightsview, is charged with driving a motor vehicle without consent, drink driving and driving a vehicle while licence is disqualified or suspended.

He was also issued with a six-month instant loss of licence.

Terry Thompson, an SA manager at Access Hire – the company that owns the scissor lift – said he received a call from police at 4.30am to recover the scissor lift, which was parked in his lot.

“My first thought was I hoped no one had been hurt,” he said.

On Friday, Magistrate Ben Sale issued a warrant for Mr Tuhaka’s arrest, with police bail excluded.