The McDonald's Queenstown duty manager sentenced to seven months' home detention for kicking a customer in the head claims the event could have been prevented had the outlet's owner listened to security woes.
Rishi Kumar (34) told the Otago Daily Times yesterday he was sorry for injuring a customer on August 30 at the Queenstown restaurant and regretted his actions.
Kumar was this week convicted of intent to injure causing injury for grabbing the trespassing customer, swinging him around, punching him to the ground, standing on his torso and then finally kicking the man in the head - all caught on CCTV footage.
Kumar said he had "countless" encounters with intoxicated customers since his employment in April.
"It's out of hand - people come in and do whatever they want to do."
Kumar said he had made calls to the Queenstown police on a weekly basis regarding drunken incidents at the restaurant and said he asked the McDonald's outlet owner Mark Julian on several occasions to get more security in place.
"With my boss, I did ask him that something had to happen. He told me I am to call police, but sometimes they cannot come instantly."
Mr Julian declined to comment when approached by the Otago Daily Times for a response yesterday.
