Undie 500 defendants sentenced

Two students involved in fire-related incidents during September's Undie 500 disorder received fines and community work, respectively, when they appeared in the Dunedin District Court on Tuesday.

• Brett Marcus Hornblow (17), dairy farm worker, was fined $750, court costs $130, for disorderly behaviour likely to cause violence on Castle St on September 12.

He used a cigarette to try to reignite a blaze firefighters were putting out.

Hornblow was also fined $300, court costs $130, on an unrelated charge of unlawfully possessing an offensive weapon (a knife) on November 25 at Telford Rural Polytechnic.

Duty solicitor Helgi Henderson said the defendant was very young and had made "unfortunate choices".

But, despite a degree of immaturity in his behaviour when there was alcohol involved, Hornblow had got his life "back on track" in recent weeks.

He now had a job on a dairy farm and was earning a good income for someone his age so a fine would be appropriate.

The second charge arising from the knife possession sounded "slightly more sinister" but had resulted from what was effectively an end of year incident, Mr Henderson said.

A large amount of alcohol had been consumed and, in what was no doubt "the spirit of frivolity", Hornblow was picked up and thrown in the river by others.

His iPod and cellphone were ruined and he responded by becoming angry and brandishing a large knife.

He had no intention of harming anyone but was "just trying to make a point", Mr Henderson told the court.

Judge O'Driscoll said while Hornblow had been remanded for community detention to be considered, he agreed a financial penalty was appropriate.

• Jacob Stephen Savery (18) was sentenced to 75 hours' community work and told he was "the author of his own fate".

Savery grabbed a cigarette lighter and used it to set fire to a couch he and several others had dragged out to Castle St about 1am on September 13.

Counsel Jo Turner said the defendant had already been penalised for his behaviour.

He had been excluded from university for the first semester next year.

Ms Turner said Savery wanted to express his remorse for what he described as "10 seconds of drunken irrational thinking".

He pleaded guilty in October to one charge of disorderly behaviour likely to cause violence and was remanded for a report to consider community detention.

But the recommendation yesterday was for community work and Judge O'Driscoll said that was the penalty he would impose.

• Alexander William Ingram (19) was granted a discharge without conviction in the Lower Hutt District Court last Thursday .

Ingram admitted using offensive words to Constable Paul Marks on Castle St in September.