Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Homeless man jailed for arson at Wineworks bottling plant

Ric Stevens
By Ric Stevens
Open Justice reporter·NZ Herald·
5 Aug, 2022 05:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Wineworks Hawke's Bay general manager Steve White with the Mitsubishi truck destroyed in a fire set by Wade O'Malley in September 2021. Photo / Paul Taylor

Wineworks Hawke's Bay general manager Steve White with the Mitsubishi truck destroyed in a fire set by Wade O'Malley in September 2021. Photo / Paul Taylor

Wade Bernard O'Malley, 48, pleaded guilty to arson only after being shown a security camera video of him starting the fire at the Wineworks bottling plant at Flaxmere, Hastings, in September last year.

He tried three times to use a lighter to set fire to plastic wrapping on a loaded pallet of packaged wine in the Wineworks yard, the Napier District Court was told on Friday.

When he succeeded, the resulting fire destroyed a truck and a curtain-side trailer, damaged a container, and jumped a fence to the Bostock yard next door, damaging orchard workers' accommodation and an ablution block.

Before sentencing O'Malley to 30 months in prison on Friday, Judge Gordon Matenga asked the Crown and defence lawyers to clarify how much damage had been done.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Crown prosecutor Lara Marshall and defence counsel Will Hawkins compared notes and agreed on the figure of $354,778.

However, Judge Matenga said there was other damage that could not be quantified, including delays and disruption to the businesses and management time in dealing with the aftermath.

He said Wineworks had been unable to operate at the site for some time.

The judge also said that although no one was injured in the blaze, "danger to occupants and firefighters is inherent in any fire".

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

O'Malley had been sleeping rough in the Flaxmere industrial area in the days before lighting the fire one evening, and had twice been found dossing down in the unoccupied Bostock workers' accommodation.

After lighting the fire at Wineworks, he went into an apple packhouse nearby and made himself a coffee in the smoko room, before being found and arrested by police.

O'Malley was convicted on one charge of being unlawfully in a building, one of being in an enclosed yard, and two of arson.

Judge Matenga said that before lighting the fire, O'Malley had been smoking bath salts and had taken a pill. O'Malley did not know what the pill was.

Discover more

New Zealand|crime

Shop thief stays in jail but won't be required to pay reparation

04 Aug 12:44 AM

Rotarians dig deep for pathway facelift

04 Aug 10:00 PM
New Zealand

Findings released for Napier Port vessel blaze

05 Aug 01:42 AM

"As a result of smoking the bath salts and taking whatever drug it was … you have no memory," the judge said.

O'Malley has a previous conviction for arson, in 2014.

Judge Matenga said that a cultural report on O'Malley made "grim reading" and described him as a "damaged man" who had suffered childhood violence, trauma and mental health issues.

"You coped with the situation by using substances, which … drive your offending."

The judge but did not order any reparation.

"Reparation, in a word, is unrealistic," the judge said. "You are not someone who has any ability to pay."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Judge Matenga said O'Malley had expressed remorse, especially to the workers whose lives were affected.

He hoped they had not lost their jobs.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today
|Updated

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

Hawkes Bay Today

'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues

Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay
Hawkes Bay Today
|Updated

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

Some roads remained blocked.

17 Jul 06:02 AM
'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues
Hawkes Bay Today

'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues

17 Jul 04:06 AM
Premium
Premium
Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa

17 Jul 04:00 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP