Reuben Jeremy Finn, 30, and Bronte LeLievre, 32, appeared in the Nelson District Court today charged with performing an indecent act in a public place.
Their antics played out during a flight from Auckland to Nelson in November last year.
Their kissing progressed to overt fondling in front of other passengers on the Air New Zealand plane.
Despite requests from the cabin crew for the pair to stop, they continued and were arrested when the flight landed, Judge Barkle said.
Finn and the woman had left Auckland on the morning of November 13 with 48 others on board at the time and two flight attendants. They were seated near the front in row three.
Finn's lawyer Steven Zindel said that cabin crew had reported him as being "quite high", which was indicative of his addiction problem.
Zindel said that extended to a "significant" gambling addiction leading to losses of $100,000 in online pokies.
The court heard that as the flight neared Nelson and began its descent, the pair started to kiss each other "excessively".
One of the flight attendants asked them to stop what they were doing as other passengers were disturbed.
As the flight attendant turned away, Finn and the woman resumed kissing, and were asked again to stop or their behaviour would be escalated to the captain.
Finn then reached inside the woman's bra and began fondling her, which other people on the flight could see.
The flight attendant alerted the flight deck while the second attendant approached the couple, who by then had progressed to heavier petting.
When they saw the attendant approach, they pretended to be asleep, but Finn still had his hand down the woman's pants.
Once the flight landed in Nelson, police boarded the flight and arrested the pair.
Finn admitted the charge. In sentencing him, Judge Barkle noted he had 21 previous convictions, mostly for dishonesty and theft between 2016 and 2024.
The judge said, when factoring in Finn's background, the man had largely had an "enjoyable upbringing", despite having lost his father at a young age, which would have had a significant impact on him.
Finn was sentenced to six months' community detention and 12 months of supervision.
The overall sentence covered the indecent act as well as sentencing on other, unrelated offending, including retail theft and theft of items from a house that a courier had just dropped off, and two charges of breaching court bail.
LeLievre admitted the indecent act charge and would be sentenced in November.
- By Tracey Neal, Open Justice reporter from NZ Herald
