Jail time after theft of dying man's wallet in Waihi

Donald Bridge-Peacock, 24, was sentenced to four months' jail when he appeared in Hastings District Court.

Friends of a young father who moved to Napier to be with his partner and children hope he can turn his back on his previous lifestyle after a short stint in jail for stealing a wallet from a dying man on the streets of Coromandel town Waihi.

Donald Bridge-Peacock, 24, originally from Paeroa, was sentenced to four months' jail when he appeared in Hastings District Court this week.

He had previously pleaded guilty to a charge of theft after he and his partner found 61-year-old Henry Wayne Pere unresponsive at the wheel of a parked vehicle on October 18.

Bridge-Peacock took Pere's wallet and cellphone which were soon afterwards discarded in a rubbish bin, minus $80 in cash. But police were able to identify suspects as a couple who left Waihi on a bus for Hawke's Bay soon afterwards.

Bridge-Peacock had other convictions for theft, but he and his partner handed themselves in at the Napier Police Station after media publicity and public condemnation.

Judge Bridget Mackintosh imposed what was Bridge-Peacock's first prison sentence, despite convictions going back to 2009, and with other thefts and a methamphetamine possession charge also before the court.

Judge Mackintosh acknowledged the defendant was motivated to work and be a good father to his children.

One Facebook comment described him as a good person with not the best "morals" but said: "He can change."