A young Queenstown man who moved to the resort to get out of trouble picked "a difficult place" to move to, Judge Dominic Flatley said in the Queenstown District Court yesterday.
Lance Kerr Taylor (19), plasterer, was sentenced on three charges which all occurred on September 9.
He admitted stealing a Burton snowboard and bindings; two Leki ski poles; one black camera bag containing a camera lens; one black laptop case containing a Hewlett Packard laptop; one blue Fairydown backpack containing two digital radios, two pairs of ski goggles, an Olympus camera, an iPod MP3 player, two Petzel head lamps and a Nikon wristwatch, all valued at $3810, property of Reon Hotton.
He also admitted stealing two snowboards and bindings valued at $1600, property of Paul Kenward; and receiving a Canon Powershot camera valued at $413 from persons unknown, being reckless as to whether or not the camera had been stolen.
Judge Flatley told Taylor he "seriously considered" a prison sentence, but decided to give him one more chance.
Taylor told the court he had moved to Queenstown three months ago to "clean his act up".
Judge Flatley questioned why Taylor had made the effort to shift to the resort to get out of trouble and promptly got back into trouble.
"I lost a couple of mates in the last year," an emotional Taylor said.
"That night I drank a bit too much and thought about it a bit too much and just lost it," he said.
Judge Flatley said he had considered sending Taylor to prison if he was unable to furnish an appropriate address for electronically monitored bail, but felt it would be counterproductive.
"I suspect that you are a fairly decent young man and trying to make some changes."
Judge Flatley decided to cancel Taylor's existing community work sentence and impose 400 hours on the receiving charge and one of the theft charges.
On the theft of two snowboards, Taylor was remanded at large to March 8.
"If the reports with regard to your community work are good, it may be that I won't impose any further community work.
"You have picked a hard place to move to to sort your life out.
"Queenstown is a difficult place as far as drugs and alcohol are concerned.
"You may have a hard road Mr Taylor . . . make a concerted effort to stay out of trouble."
Taylor was also ordered to pay $590 reparation immediately.
