A Tauranga man who rammed a boy racer's car with his 4WD should be applauded - "to a point", his lawyer told a court today.
The actions of Edwin Francis Murray, 53, a driller, were an understandable response from a citizen who had had enough of the irresponsible behaviour of young male drivers, said Viv Winiata.
But Mr Winiata conceded his client became "overzealous" when he rammed the Nissan Cefiro a second time, punched the windows, kicked the door panels and yelled abuse at the driver.
Murray appeared before Community Magistrate Mary Symans in Tauranga District Court for a depositions hearing on charges of reckless driving, assault with a blunt instrument (a motor vehicle) and threatening to kill.
When police prosecutor Sergeant Craig Kitto withdrew the assault and replaced the threatening to kill with a count of using threatening language, Murray pleaded guilty.
He was fined $500 plus $130 court costs for reckless driving, disqualified for six months and ordered to pay $500 reparation.
A $200 fine but no court costs was the penalty for using threatening language.
The court was told how, on a wet evening in June, Murray heard the sound of wheels spinning near his Welcome Bay home, told his wife to ring the police and went outside where he could see and smell the smoke fumes.
He got into his 4WD and bailed up the Cefiro in the carpark of nearby tennis courts where it had allegedly been doing a burnout.
After the first ramming, the car's engine stopped. When it re-started, Murray drove into the vehicle again, pushing it 15m through a fence.
When police arrived, he said: "I am sick of them (boy racers). They are doing it all the time."
Mr Winiata claimed his client had intended to block the other vehicle from leaving until police got there.
Several residents, also fed up with their neighbourhood being used for illegal driving, had gathered and were "happy" with Murray's actions.
Other citizens should be apprehending boy racers for the police, the lawyer suggested but added that Murray accepted he had "gone too far".
Mr Winiata said the 18-year-old driver of the Cefiro had been taking a potential buyer for a test drive in the unwarranted car, which carried a red-sticker banning it from being on the road.
In July, the youth pleaded guilty to operating a vehicle with sustained loss of traction and was fined $1000, disqualified from driving for eight months and ordered not to have any interest in a motor vehicle for a year.
Because there was fault on both sides, his client should not have to pay the $1065 demanded in reparation, offering $500 instead, Mr Winiata said.
He asked the magistrate to consider not disqualifying Murray from driving.
The teenager's contributory, provocative behaviour was "the genesis of what occurred here".
Sergeant Kitto said Murray was trying to "pass on the blame" and diminish his own responsibility.
"The young man who was involved has appeared in court and has paid his dues to society."
Although donuts, wheel spinning and burnouts were annoying and dangerous behaviour, dealing with it "vigilante-style" could not be condoned, said the sergeant.
Rather than taking the law into their own hands, people should take down a registration number and give it to the police.
After an adjournment to consider the case, the community magistrate found that there were no reasons sufficiently special not to disqualify Murray.
She considered $500 a "reasonable" amount for reparation.
