Legal high led to neighbourhood rampage
A 28-year-old Avonhead man has been granted a discharge without conviction after his first venture into using a type of synthetic cannabis led to him doing $5271 damage around the neighbourhood.
Matthew Andrew Staines has lost his job as a baker and will go onto a benefit, but over the last two weeks he has saved up $700 to pay to the victims of his rampage last August.
Christchurch District Court Judge Jane Farish has ordered him to pay for the rest of the damage at $50 a week.
She said at his sentencing today: “Unfortunately, you are like a lot of young men we see before the courts because of the use of legal highs.” Using a synthetic high he had never used before had made him “quite psychotic”.
Staines damaged a car in a driveway, broke a house window, and pulled out a garden light. He pleaded guilty to the charge of intentional damage.
He has been to a restorative justice conference with the victims, and has said he will pay for the damage.
Defence counsel Donald Matthews asked for Staines to be discharged without conviction, and told the judge that he had already made the $700 deposit for the victims.
Judge Farish said she was satisfied that a discharge without conviction was warranted. She noted that Staines had no previous convictions.
She discharged him, ordered the reparation payments, and warned him: “You should not be using legal highs. You have already had one nasty experience. If you choose to use it again, the court will not treat you so leniently.”
Category: Focus
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