A woman at the centre of a peculiar garden ornament bust has been sentenced to 40 hours community work.
Police stumbled across about 150 garden gnomes and ornaments on the afternoon of February 21 last year while assisting an inquiry about unpaid power bills at a Flaxmere address.
With values ranging from $20 to $800, the colourful collection included a flamingo ornament, garden Buddha, fisherman gnome, Maori tiki carving and a variety of pot plants.
They were identified as stolen from various addresses in Hawke's Bay between October 2016 and February 2017.
Flaxmere woman Zandria Maria Tonihi, 53, was charged with 15 counts of receiving stolen property valued under $500 and a further two charges of receiving stolen property valued between $500 and $1000.