{"id":132298,"date":"2025-11-13T03:44:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T03:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/132298\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T03:44:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T03:44:07","slug":"bronte-lelievre-jailed-by-nelson-court-over-air-nz-flight-indecency-burglary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/132298\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronte LeLievre jailed by Nelson court over Air NZ flight indecency, burglary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judge Garry Barkle, who sentenced Finn, said it was apparent from the summary of facts that the pair\u2019s in-flight conduct caused \u201cmuch embarrassment and discomfort\u201d to the passengers and crew.<\/p>\n

\"BronteBronte LeLievre and Reuben Finn caused \u201cmuch embarrassment and discomfort\u201d to passengers and crew with their public display of affection on an Air NZ domestic flight from Auckland to Nelson. Images \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

Judge Snell said addiction was the root cause of LeLievre\u2019s crime \u201cspree\u201d. <\/p>\n

She had since expressed remorse and said it was unlikely she would have behaved in such a way had she not been under the influence of drugs.<\/p>\n

Passionate passengers<\/p>\n

The Air New Zealand<\/a> regional flight with 48 people on board left Auckland on the morning of November 13 last year, bound for Nelson.<\/p>\n

The pair were seated at the front in row 3.<\/p>\n

As the flight approached Nelson<\/a> and started its descent, LeLievre and Finn began \u201ckissing each other excessively\u201d. <\/p>\n

One of two flight attendants asked them to stop, for the sake of other passengers.<\/p>\n

But the pair carried on until the flight attendant asked them again to stop, or the flight deck would be notified.<\/p>\n

Finn then reached inside LeLievre\u2019s bra and began fondling her, which others on the flight could see.<\/p>\n

The flight attendant alerted the flight deck while the second attendant approached the couple, who by then had progressed to heavier petting.<\/p>\n

When they saw the attendant approach, they pretended to be asleep, but Finn still had his hand inside LeLievre\u2019s clothes.<\/p>\n

Once the flight landed in Nelson, police boarded the flight and arrested the couple.<\/p>\n

Driving with \u2018potentially toxic\u2019 level of meth<\/p>\n

Three months earlier, on August 28 last year, LeLievre\u2019s meth-induced behaviour<\/a> while driving ended with charges including driving dangerously, driving with blood containing a qualifying drug above a high risk level, and giving false information about her identity.<\/p>\n

She had taken methamphetamine<\/a> before driving that morning. She was seen tailgating other vehicles and swerving across SH6 T\u0101hunanui Drive and Rocks Rd as she headed towards Nelson city.<\/p>\n

At one point, she wandered into the oncoming lane of the busy highway, disrupting traffic, including large trucks, which had to brake suddenly. <\/p>\n

She drove through a major intersection as the light turned red, and then into a barrier along Rocks Rd.<\/p>\n

As she continued towards Nelson, she was seen driving erratically<\/a> before suddenly swerving into the right-hand lane of a roundabout and driving straight through.<\/p>\n

She continued through several more intersections and busy inner-city streets, and narrowly avoided a head-on collision with another vehicle. The driver had pulled as far to the left as possible, but ended up losing a wing mirror as LeLievre scraped past.<\/p>\n

\"BronteBronte LeLievre was driving while “high as a kite” on methamphetamine, endangering not only herself but members of the public, a judge said. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

When she was stopped by the police, she gave them her sister\u2019s details and continued to provide false details throughout police proceedings.<\/p>\n

Analysis of a compulsory impairment test showed she had a \u201cpotentially toxic\u201d concentration of methamphetamine in her system at 640 nanograms per millilitre of blood.<\/p>\n

Research showed that level would cause \u201csignificant psychomotor impairment\u201d and have serious adverse health effects.<\/p>\n

LeLievre was identified at the police station by an officer who had dealt with her before, and who alerted staff to the false details she had provided.<\/p>\n

Caravan taken in burglary<\/p>\n

A burglary charge<\/a> followed when, about 4am on September 8, LeLievre and an associate were seen on CCTV entering a property through the front gate in Atawhai, north of Nelson.<\/p>\n

They walked around for about 40 minutes, then took items including a caravan, a tomahawk cover, a spotting scope, a rifle cover, plus tools and equipment.<\/p>\n

About five days later, police searched a nearby property and found the items, apart from the caravan.<\/p>\n

Judge Snell said a 70-year-old man, who had lived in the home for many years and had once felt secure, said in his victim impact statement that he had since lost confidence in human nature.<\/p>\n

Further meth-impaired driving<\/p>\n

A month after the flight to Nelson, LeLievre lost control of her vehicle and collided with another parked in T\u0101hunanui.<\/p>\n

She was found unresponsive in the driver\u2019s seat, \u201cutterly befuddled\u201d by drugs, Judge Snell said.<\/p>\n

She was taken to hospital by ambulance, where tests showed high levels of methamphetamine and cannabis in her system.<\/p>\n

It led to charges of driving while under the influence of drugs, and careless driving.<\/p>\n

Judge Snell said LeLievre had been \u201chigh as a kite\u201d on meth and incapable of driving safely, meaning she was a danger to herself and members of the public.<\/p>\n

LeLievre was further charged with resisting and assaulting police when they arrived at her home just after midnight on January 25 this year to let her know she was under arrest.<\/p>\n

She \u201cactively resisted\u201d arrest and later told police she was \u201cfreaking out\u201d and didn\u2019t want to be locked in the cells.<\/p>\n

On March 2 this year, after being stopped by police while driving, she again gave false details.<\/p>\n

Her lawyer, Dave Holloway, said LeLievre, who had been in custody on remand for some time, had had a chance to reflect and was motivated to address her addiction problems.<\/p>\n

She said in a pre-sentence report that meth had \u201cruined my life\u201d, and acknowledged it had also harmed the victims of her offending.<\/p>\n

Judge Snell said it was an appropriate comment, as LeLievre, who had a minimal record, appeared to have gone \u201ccompletely off track\u201d in the past year.<\/p>\n

He said it was admirable that she wanted to fix her life and build on her relationship with her young daughter. While the court would do what it could to help, it would be a long journey.<\/p>\n

LeLievre was sentenced to two years in prison on all but two charges, with leave to apply for home detention once a suitable address was found. <\/p>\n

She was convicted and discharged for giving false information. She was also disqualified from driving for 16 months and ordered to pay $400 in reparations to the burglary victim, which was her share of the insurance excess.<\/p>\n

She was also ordered to pay $3799 to the police as reparation for analysts\u2019 fees and medical expenses.<\/p>\n

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ\u2019s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government, for the Nelson Mail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Judge Garry Barkle, who sentenced Finn, said it was apparent from the summary of facts that the pair\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[68,1558,90908,9767,3595,8414,1349,60049,70,42,90910,14641,44324,90909,91,43,69,1523,5202,75374,8442,5914,13743,40,38,41,39,1354],"class_list":["post-132298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-air","tag-been","tag-bronte","tag-burglary","tag-by","tag-couple","tag-court","tag-excessive","tag-flight","tag-headlines","tag-indecency","tag-jailed","tag-kissing","tag-lelievre","tag-nelson","tag-news","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-part","tag-pinged","tag-prison","tag-regional","tag-sent","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}