Brett Peter Kerr's burglary - described as bungling and inept by his own lawyer-- has brought a sentence of community detention and intensive supervision.
People visiting a Prebbleton household, near Christchurch, found 28-year-old Kerr dazed and incoherent and believed he had fallen and hit his head while carrying a drumkit down a spiral staircase from a loft in the garage.
Kerr, a carpenter, appeared in Christchurch District Court today for sentence having admitted charges of burglary, setting a fire on a butcher's block in the kitchen of the house and resisting police.
Defence counsel Tony Garrett said: "However bungling and inept, it was still a burglary and if he had not injured himself they would have lost property," he said.
The court had been told that Kerr had carried out the burglary because he believed the householders owed him money for work he had done on their vineyard.
Judge Raoul Neave noted that the burglary, in which he took a drum kit, a watch, and a large screen television, was Kerr's third burglary conviction.
He had set fire to an oven mitt placed on top of the butcher's block, but the visitors were able to put out the blaze before any serious damage was caused.
Even so, repairs and cleaning of the smoke damage brought a reparation bill of $2715.
Judge Neave said Kerr had a history of depression, and drug and alcohol issues, but had recognised his problems and done something positive to deal with them on his own initiative.
"Normally, somebody facing their third conviction for burglary can expect a term of imprisonment," he said.
He sentenced Kerr to six months' community detention at his home in Cranford Street, and 18 months of intensive supervision. He will have to pay the reparation at $15 a week.
