Bankrupted cafe owner and 2013 mayoral candidate Olivier Lequeux (47) was sentenced yesterday by Judge Kevin Phillips in the Dunedin District Court to 12 months' intensive supervision, with a requirement to undergo a residential drug and alcohol addiction programme.
He was also ordered to pay $1049 reparation for the cafe equipment he stole, which included $630 worth of coffee beans.
Earlier in the day, he pleaded guilty to a representative charge of theft.
The charge was laid in place of three burglary charges relating to three incidents on New Year's Eve 2013 and New Year's Day last year, when he took cafe equipment from George St cafe Mou Very.
Judge Phillips said Lequeux was ''fortunate'' the case did not go to trial with all charges still in place, as it was scheduled to yesterday, as he would have been sentenced to prison if found guilty.
The offending had ''family overtones'', as the cafe was owned by the children of Lequeux's former partner, and the theft occurred during a period when Lequeux's life was in ''total freefall''.
At the time, he had recently been made bankrupt and was battling a ''serious alcohol addiction problem'', from which he still suffered.
Lequeux had earlier sold Mou Very to his former partner, believing he would continue to run it, but instead she sold it to her children.
Her children employed Lequeux, but their relationship with him fell apart.
''You thought you could run it better ... and, in the end, they had to dismiss you.''
He was later given his job back, but during the three incidents he entered the premises without permission and took the items as though they were his.
He had also lied to Mou Very customers, saying the cafe was closing and directing them to his new cafe across the road.
Later, he trespassed his ex-partner's son when he attempted to retrieve the stolen items from the new cafe.
Judge Phillips said the rehabilitative sentence was a ''second chance'' for Lequeux, but ''all options'' would be open if he rejected the sentence.
There would be three months of judicial monitoring to ensure he completed it.
''I will be on you,'' he said.
Lequeux was allowed to serve his sentence at Waiheke Island, where he plans to move.
