Man sentenced over assault of parking warden

Landscape gardener Peter Brenan Gallagher, 59, appeared in the Auckland District Court this morning. Photo / File

A man who beat a parking warden, breaking one of his ribs, in a dispute over a ticket has escaped detention and will instead serve 250 hours of community work.

Landscape gardener Peter Brenan Gallagher, 59, appeared in the Auckland District Court this morning after earlier pleading guilty to a charge of injuring with reckless disregard to safety over the July incident.

The parking warden was in hospital for two days with injuries including a fractured rib and a partially collapsed lung.

The maximum penalty for the charge was three years in prison, but Gallagher was granted leniency at his sentencing today by Judge Mary-Elizabeth Sharp after he paid $2000 in reparation and completed an anger management course.

"I convict you and sentence you to a term of 250 hours of community work on the basis that if you had not taken the steps that you did to complete an anger management course and pay reparation you would have, most assuredly, been facing a sentence of home detention," she told him.

"But I give you all the credit I can for pleading guilty and taking all the steps that you did."

The assault was described as "completely out of character" for Gallagher, but Judge Sharp said she hoped his anger problem would now be "under considerable control" following the completion of the programme.

On July 17, Gallagher was given two infringement notices after leaving his car illegally parked over his Kingsland driveway and having an expired Warrant of Fitness certificate.

When he returned to his car to find the tickets, he jumped in and drove off. He later encountered the parking warden. He had documents to show his car was in the process of getting a new WOF and believed this would be render the tickets void.

"However, the officer refused to do anything about the notices, causing the defendant to become angry."

The pair started rowing over the infringement notices, and Gallagher grabbed the warden's shirt, who then pushed Gallagher back. Gallagher then punched him in the side of the head, causing him to fall down a bank. He grabbed both of the man's legs, stood on him, putting one of his feet on the man's chest using all of his body weight, before getting back into his car, Judge Sharp said.

It was reported at the time that two towtruck operators, who were alerted to the commotion over the parking warden's radio, rushed to his aid, as did a woman.

At the time of the incident, Auckland Transport said it was the most serious assault on a staff member since the agency took council parking officers under its wing four years ago.