A nicotine addict who smashed a supermarket's glass door to steal a cigarette lighter so he could light up has been advised to give up smoking by a judge.
Samuela Haitonga Kavenga, 51, pleaded guilty to charges of unlawfully being found in a building, wilful damage, and theft when heappeared in Tauranga District Court today.
Judge Robert Wolff sentenced Kavenga to 100 hours and nine months supervision, and ordered him to pay $1050 reparation at $50 a week.
On August 3 an intoxicated Kavenga wanted to smoke a cigarette, so he took a trolley and smashed it through the Fraser Cove Countdown supermarket automatic glass doors.
He then walked into the store and grabbed a $3.99 Bic lighter.
Kavenga was subsequently arrested and charged with burglary.
The burglary charge was withdrawn by police today, and replaced with the other three charges.
Kavenga's lawyer Genevieve Denize told Judge Wolff that her client was "very embarrassed and sorry" for his actions, and he was prepared to pay full reparation if given time to do so.
"Clearly you had drunk too much that night Mr Kavenga and this suggests to me you should severely curtail your drinking, and perhaps give up smoking while you're at it. I don't know whether you can even imagine how frightening it would have been for the people inside the supermarket to have a drunk man barging down the doors," Judge Wolff said.
The judge said he needed to send Kavenga a message that this was serious offending, and the supervision sentence being imposed to help him deal with alcohol problems, and any other issues behind his offending.
