A Queenstown resident who spat on a man who served him legal documents has been sentenced to community work.
The victim told the court he went to a Frankton address on October 12 to serve documents to Hartley and a woman also living there.
He had been to the property before and encountered hostility from the defendant, so asked a friend to accompany him as a witness in case of any trouble, the man said.
After serving documents to the woman outside the house, he was met at the door by Hartley, who told him to put the documents on the ground and "f... off".
When the defendant told him he was trespassing, the victim replied he was not.
As he walked down steps beside the house on his way out of the property, Hartley opened a window above him and spat, hitting his head and neck.
The window was then shut with such force it smashed.
The victim said he and the witness walked a short distance down the road before he called the police, while Hartley stood in the middle of the road shouting abuse at them.
The victim denied a suggestion by defence counsel Bryony Shackell he had been hit by spittle inadvertently ejected from the defendant’s mouth while he was speaking in an "emotionally triggered" state.
He also rejected Ms Shackell’s contention he was exaggerating the incident out of frustration at the challenging nature of his work as a process server.
In sentencing, Judge Brandts-Giesen said he accepted the defendant might have suffered personal setbacks as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the whole community had been affected by the pandemic and the defendant’s behaviour was "unacceptable".
He sentenced him to 60 hours’ community work.
