Allan Ernst Towers, 65, appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday after earlier admitting a charge of intentional damage.
The court heard that between August and October last year there were repeated instances of friction between the defendant and his neighbour, with whom he shared a driveway.
On October 11 and 18, Towers drove his vehicle past the victim’s front gate and used a torch to disrupt the sensors on her security cameras.
He also gave the middle finger to the cameras on several occasions.
On October 23, about 9.40pm, Towers used a paintball gun to shoot the cameras, causing them to fall and break.
In the aftermath, he told police he regularly used a torch to interfere with the neighbour’s security system to "bug them" and would continue to do so.
He explained he pulled the middle finger at the cameras because he did not like them capturing the shared driveway.
Yesterday, counsel Andrew Dawson said his client was "not at his best" when the offending occurred as he was dealing with a recent bereavement.
He said Towers’ comments to police were made "in the heat of the moment" and he now wanted everyone in the neighbourhood to live in harmony.
The defendant felt the cameras were "spying on him" as he used the shared driveway but recognised his behaviour needed to stop, his lawyer said.
The discord had been "somewhat of a two-way street" Mr Dawson said, with neighbours making allegations to authorities about Towers’ treatment of animals — claims which were not substantiated.
Towers claimed dead animals had been dumped on his property and trees had been cut down without his consent.
Judge Hermann Retzlaff deferred the defendant’s sentence for 12 months and ordered him to pay reparation of $1029 for the cameras.
The judge said the sentence would ensure that if the offending was not a one-off there could be more serious consequences.
The court heard Towers had no convictions for the last 20 years.
However, in 2016, the former real estate agent avoided disciplinary action after he called a house seller a "stupid, stupid woman".
A chain of angry text messages were aired before the Real Estate Agents Disciplinary Tribunal.
"What’s wrong with you, can you not read, go ahead and call the Reaa [the tribunal]. I’ll gladly explain this has nothing to do with them. I was calling you as a byer [sic] not as an agent, you stupid, stupid woman," one read.
Towers did not take part in the hearing, said he would not be "acknowledging this rubbish", and surrendered his licence.
The tribunal found Towers’ behaviour did not amount to misconduct.
