When police conducted a search warrant earlier this year, they found it installed in his vehicle.
This gave rise to a charge of theft by a person in a special relationship, which he pleaded guilty to at an earlier court appearance.
He was also charged with possession of police property, after he was found to have a tyre deflation device, known as a spike, as well as an “obsolete and empty” police notebook and notice to order a defective vehicle off the road (green-sticker book).
He pleaded guilty to that charge, too.
At the man’s sentencing in the Tauranga District Court on Wednesday, his lawyer Michael Douglas said the spike and green-sticker book had been left in a second-hand police car, which the man purchased from Turners. He’d been given the police notebook at a police “open day”.
Douglas sought a discharge without conviction, arguing the nature of the charges would lead to consequences out of proportion for the gravity of the offending.
The police prosecutor opposed the application.
Interest in emergency services ‘got the better of him’, says defence
Douglas said the conviction would give the impression of dishonesty but these were all items that came into his possession without any deception.
It was a case of “his interest in emergency services getting the better of him”, Douglas said.
The items had been seen by the man as “memorabilia, relevant to his interest”.
Judge Stephen Coyle was concerned the man hadn’t, upon discovering the road spike and green-sticker booklet, gone “straight to the nearest police station” to return them.
“It should have been patently clear to you that police would not have intended to sell an ex-police vehicle with road spikes, and indeed a green-sticker book, left in the vehicle.”
It was “frankly concerning” items such as the spike could be possessed by members of the public, given the “potential consequences if they are used inappropriately”, the judge said.
The police were tipped off by an anonymous informant through Crime Stoppers about the man’s possession of the road spikes.
The judge also had concerns the ambulance lights and siren had been installed in the man’s vehicle.
A psychologist’s report had revealed what the man had planned to use it for.
“You envisaged being able to use those lights if you came across a dangerous situation such as a vehicle accident or a fallen tree, so you could warn oncoming traffic,” the judge noted.
Judge Coyle later said this meant the man would have been in a position to be “good Samaritan, activating sirens and have some pseudo-official capacity”.
The judge said the man now acknowledged he should have returned the items, and he accepted the man had meant no harm by his actions.
The judge agreed with Douglas that, on face value, the charges gave the impression of a level of dishonesty that wasn’t present in this case.
The charge of “theft by person in a special relationship” usually related to people ripping off employers, sometimes stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
If the man were to apply for jobs with a conviction for that charge on a background check, the judge agreed it would be difficult for him to get employment.
There was a “real risk” any prospective employer wouldn’t seek out further information about the facts of the offending.
The judge concluded the man’s offending wasn’t “malicious” or “dishonest” but merely centred on a “warped view of [his] hobby”, with the man seeking to be almost “hero-like”.
Underpinning applications for a discharge without conviction and permanent name suppression were reports into the man’s mental health and tendency towards suicidal thoughts.
The judge was satisfied publication of the man’s name and entry of a conviction could have “significant and adverse” effects on the man’s mental health.
There had already been negative social media trolling, including comments that the judge described as “vile” and potentially warranting prosecution.
The judge said the man’s mental health, as well as the “actions of irresponsible members of society” on social media, satisfied the grounds of extreme hardship and he granted the man permanent name suppression.
He was discharged without conviction.
Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.