The actions of two young men who took an $80,000, 22-tonne front-end loader for a joyride, dug up some of the Millennium Track and then drove the loader over a bank were "much more than skylarking", Judge Michael Crosbie said in the Alexandra District Court yesterday.
Sam Reading (24), operator, of Lake Roxburgh, and Matiu Eretini Mahia (21), labourer, of Roxburgh, admitted a joint charge of taking the loader from Beaumont on June 5 or 6.
Reading was sentenced to 240 hours of community work and Mahia to 100 hours. They were ordered to pay a total of $6828 in reparation.
Each defendant was responsible for half that total and each had to pay $100 weekly.
A third person, Nick Reginald Harliwich (19), operator, of Lake Roxburgh, has been charged with unlawfully getting on to the loader.
He has pleaded not guilty and a defended hearing will be held on December 15.
The loader was owned by J.G. Wilson Hire Ltd and Judge Crosbie said Reading was a former employee. The men were on the Millennium Track between Millers Flat and Beaumont some time after midnight and came across the loader in a gravel pit near the road.
The found the key, drove it on to the road, used the bucket to dig up and damage a section of road and then abandoned the loader down a bank in a dangerous position, where it could topple over, Judge Crosbie said.
"It took numerous men and manpower to retrieve it."
Jeff Wilson of J.G. Wilson Hire Ltd gave evidence as part of a reparation hearing and said he was taking some visitors to the Talla Burn power station, owned by his family, to show them where his son Paul drowned, when he came across the abandoned loader.
It was a difficult exercise to recover the vehicle and it meant staff had to work during Queen's Birthday weekend and on the day of his late son's birthday.
Counsel for Reading, Tim Cadogan said of the incident: "The level of criminality is well down, the level of stupidity is well up." He described it as "skylarking that went wrong".
Counsel for Mahia, Russell Checketts, said Mahia "tagged along" that night - "I don't think it was his bright idea".
Judge Crosbie said Reading had convictions for theft and wilful damage, while Mahia was effectively a first offender.
The unlawful taking of vehicles and equipment were crimes that caused a vast amount of of inconvenience to the victims, he said.
