A Dunedin man who threw his motorcycle into the harbour and then claimed insurance had been incredibly naive, Judge Stephen Coyle said.
"On Facebook the day before, you said that was exactly what you were going to do," he told Hayden William Wilson (21), retailer, of Macandrew Bay.
In the Dunedin District Court yesterday, Wilson admitted making a false statement to police, and obtaining $4500 by deception.
He was convicted, given concurrent 150-hour sentences of community work on each charge, and ordered to pay $4000 reparation.
Prosecutor Sergeant Ross Hutton said Wilson told an associate on Facebook on September 3 last year he was going to leave his motorcycle on the street and then take it down the road and throw it into the harbour in the middle of the night. He was then going to call police and say it was stolen.
Overnight, he took his motorcycle to Portobello Rd, threw it into the harbour and went home.
Just after 6am on September 4, he telephoned police and reported the motorcycle stolen.
Two hours later, a person walking in Portobello Rd found the motorcycle. It was recovered by police.
On September 6, Wilson made an insurance claim stating his motorcycle had been stolen and was subsequently paid $4500 for a replacement motorcycle.
Spoken to, Wilson stated the Facebook conversation was just a coincidence.
Wilson had no previous convictions.
Counsel Anne Stevens submitted Wilson had with him the money for reparation.
He was most unlikely to be before the court again.
There were serious consequences from what he had done.
It might be impossible for him to obtain insurance in the future "and there are these convictions for dishonesty".
