It's sad, you have needless record: Judge

A man who escaped police custody and didn't turn up at court has earned himself a conviction he could have avoided by just showing up, a judge says.

Cruise Whittaker was arrested last August after a drunken brawl, and was bailed to appear in the Whanganui District Court on August 19. He did not appear.

He was arrested, bailed again, and failed to appear a second time.

In January, police went to Whittaker's address and he gave them false information about his identity before fleeing.

He got about 50 metres, jumping several fences before he was caught.

Whittaker appeared in court on Tuesday and admitted charges of escaping lawful custody and failing to answer bail.

Defence lawyer Anna Brosnahan said he had no previous convictions and apologised.

"He obviously got scared ... he knows that police have a hard enough job without people like him being immature and running away," Ms Brosnahan said.

Judge Dugald Matheson said Whittaker probably would have kept his clean record had he come to court when he was supposed to.

"It started off with something going a bit wrong at a party and the police were pretty happy to look at sorting it out without you having a conviction," he said.

"Then we've got this not turning up, not turning up, and taking off.

"You know what's happened, which is sad because you have now got a record and you weren't going to get one."

Judge Matheson sentenced Whittaker to 75 hours of community work.