Wanaka man Jan Hermanus Campher (33) has been convicted, after an Invercargill District Court jury trial this week, of four charges of intentionally damaging telecommunication cabinets by setting fire to them in Wanaka on June 11 and 12.
Campher has been remanded in custody until sentencing on May 20.
The fires occurred in four boxes around Wanaka's central area two nights in a row, disrupting services and causing concerns lives could have been put at risk during the outages.
In what is believed to be a New Zealand first, two of the verdicts were a split 11-1 majority decision, The Southland Times reported yesterday.
Those verdicts were in relation to the fires on June 12, one on Kings Dr and the other on corner of Hedditch St and Anderson Rd.
The other fires occurred on Brownston St and on the corner of Brownston and Dungarvon Sts.
Telecom's network access company, Chorus, said in a brief statement yesterday through its external communications manager, Robin Kelly, it was "pleased there has been an outcome to the court case".
"This kind of intentional damage to our telecommunications infrastructure causes significant disruptions for our customers and we will continue to fully support any investigations into incidents like this one."
Campher was a former telecommunications technician with Downer EDI Works.
His employment had been terminated a few days before the fires occurred.
Campher denied the charges but had admitted in a police interview he had walked past one of the telecommunications boxes about the time it went up in flames, The Southland Times reported.
Campher's lawyer, Hugo Young, told the court there was too much doubt to convict Campher.
He argued a firelighter found in the Kings Dr box did not match firelighters found at Campher's home.
Owning firelighters and paper towels did not prove guilt, and neither did the discovery of a cabinet key at his home, Mr Young reportedly told the court.
Downer EDI Engineering field manager Geoffrey Campbell gave evidence for the prosecution about how the boxes were opened.
He could not be contacted yesterday for comment.
The Crown called forensic evidence from scientists as to types of materials used in the fires and those found at Campher's home.
Evidence presented by Wanaka police included a description of the materials found inside the boxes and film from surveillance cameras showing the movements of a vehicle Campher had borrowed at the time of the fires.
Crown solicitor Mary-Jane Thomas argued Campher had a motive to light the fires and should be convicted on the evidence.
