A Frenchman with a penchant for wine, cannabis and shooting paintballs will leave New Zealand more than $1000 poorer tomorrow.
Montgomery Nicholas Archibald Tremlett (20), builder, was sentenced in the Queenstown District Court yesterday on charges stemming from a string of offences in the resort over the past month.
The most unusual were three of assault using a spring-loaded paintball gun as a weapon, on February 26. Prosecutor Sergeant Ian Collin said Tremlett was on the Tiki Trail walking track with a friend near the Skyline gondola about 3pm when he shot his first victim, a Ziptrek Ecotours guide with a group of customers, on the shin.
He shot the second, female, victim in the head, and the third victim on his shoulder and the back of his helmet.
He was arrested in Stanley St with the gun concealed under his shirt.
Back at the police station, he was found to have some cannabis.
Five days earlier, on February 21, he went to Pak’nSave supermarket, concealed two bottles of wine down the front of his trousers, and paid for other items but not the wine.
On February 25, he went back and stole two more bottles, valued at $165.
On March 5, he hid a bottle of wine under his clothes, and when challenged by a staff member, ran out of the store.
Three days later, he went back and stole chicken tenderloins and health bars.
Tremlett’s lawyer, Paige Noorland, said he had tickets to leave for the United Kingdom tomorrow.
Judge Bernadette Farnan told the defendant "clearly you were out of control".
After convicting him, she ordered him to pay $214.77 in reparation to Pak’nSave, and $300 to each of his paintball victims for emotional harm,
For possessing cannabis, he was convicted and discharged.
