Man has lockdown breach conviction quashed

A Christchurch man who breached the country’s lockdown restrictions has had his conviction quashed, after saying he was made to look ‘‘as bad as the mosque shooter’’.

Fraser Wright Maddigan, 45, pleaded guilty in the Invercargill District Court in April to breaching the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act after he decided to self-isolate in his car during the level 4 lockdown. He was fined $1000 and ordered to pay $130 court costs.

Maddigan was charged after he left his home in Christchurch during the lockdown and travelled to Queenstown. He was stopped by police in the Queenstown area where police gave him an ‘‘educational’’ directive about the Covid-19 restrictions and told him to go home.

The following day Maddigan was again spoken to by police near Te Anau and asked to return home. About 9.30am the next day, he was arrested after being stopped while driving towards Te Anau.

When Maddigan appeared in court, his defence lawyer said he had left Christchurch due to ‘‘fraught’’ circumstances at home, and had taken all necessary Covid-19 safety precautions.

Judge Bernadette Farnan said it was clear Maddigan took ‘‘a belligerent attitude to police’’ and fined him for the breach.

In August, Maddigan filed a notice to appeal his conviction. He argued the police and the court failed to consider he was clearly ‘‘self-isolating in his own way’’.

He said he was in the process of returning to Christchurch when he was stopped and arrested. ‘‘I believe the prosecutor chose to hide this crucial evidence in an attempt to convince the judge I was equally as bad as the mosque shooter.’’

In considering the appeal, Justice Gerald Nation said he was satisfied Maddigan knew what the prosecution’s allegations were when he pleaded guilty to the charge. It was his right to deny the charge and to require the police to prove the charge, but he surrendered that right when he pleaded guilty.

However, there had been a fundamental error made by the duty solicitor and the judge when Maddigan was refused bail.

The solicitor advised the judge Maddigan could be remanded in custody if there was just cause for his continued detention, which was not correct, according to the provisions in the Bail Act for the minor charge he was facing.

The judge ordered that Maddigan’s conviction and sentence be quashed, and that the charge be referred back to the district court for prosecution.