'Fitness fanatic' fuming after being accused of smoking pot at Wellington holiday park

Roger Foley is fighting an accusation he smoked pot during a recent stay at a Wellington campground. Photo/Supplied

A self-confessed fitness fanatic is fuming after he was docked a penalty fee and accused of smoking so much pot in his holiday accommodation a cleaner was left gagging.

Communications advisor Roger Foley says he is outraged at treatment meted out by the Wellington Top 10 Holiday Park which has seen him and his partner branded drug users; a claim he says is so far off the mark he sought legal advice.

But the park say it is standing with the earlier decision and is confident it has identified the right cabin which needed days of fumigation before it was inhabitable again.

Foley, who at one point was Winston Peters' press secretary, said he spent four nights in a cabin at the Seaview campground a fortnight ago while his boat was under repair at the nearby marina.

It wasn't until 24 hours after Foley left the holiday park that he noticed a $50 payment had gone from his bank account. He said when he questioned the camp about the additional bill the explanation sent him ballistic.

It told him the additional charge was for allegedly smoking pot in the cabin.

"I'm so incensed by management's attitude.

"I spoke with the people at the reception and explained I'm in my 60s, I look like person in my 60s and I'm not some teenager out on a romp for the weekend and I haven't smoked anything in 50 years."

"If I was guilty then that would be fine and $50 would be nothing but why I'm really pissed off is I don't smoke, I don't even like smokers, and someone has made an allegation and it's not right and they won't even address it."

He said his partner, with whom he shared the cabin with that weekend, was not a smoker.

"We are fitness fanatics and take great pride in our health and wellbeing."

Foley said while the drug use allegation was bad enough the dismissive attitude of park staff became the tipping point for action.

"First they said it was an illegal substance. Then they said it was pot and the smell was so overpowering that the cleaner was left gagging. Then they said the smell was in the vicinity. This was after I had pointed out that a woman three doors down had been smoking in her doorway and seemed out to it inside with loud techno music playing. They just seem incapable of saying "sorry, we made a mistake"."

He then sent an email to the camp owner which was not responded to.

In the meantime, he has lodged a claim with his bank and posted a scathing review on social media review site Rankers giving the park a paltry one out of 10.

"We have never ever been treated in such a disgusting way anywhere in the world. The management turned what could have been a lovely stay into a nightmare bringing discredit on the Top 10 franchise, " he wrote on the review website.

Wellington Top 10 Holiday Park operations manager Janna Kahui today told the Herald she had met with Foley and was still confident management had the right cabin.

"It's hard for us to make an accusation but everything points to [him] being the person who held the room key."

She said the cabin Foley stayed in wasn't used in the week before with housekeeping checking for odours before he arrived.

"When they checked out on Tuesday, the smell of marijuana was so strong we had to leave the door open and use ozoners to draw out the fumes for the next two days."

She said the stench lingered a third day which required further neutralising with a citronella scent.

The park had a strict policy banning smoking indoors which it enforced when it was clearly breached.