80-year-old Wellington man impersonates police, tells woman to fix her clothing

The 80-year-old man pretended to be a police officer while telling a woman off about her clothing. Photo / File

An 80-year-old Wellington man pretended to be a police officer while telling a woman off about her clothing.

Massey Makatea was at Hey George Cafe in Kilbirnie on October 31 when he approached the woman and told her to pull her top down after it had come up.

Makatea told the woman he was a police officer and showed her a police business card with another person's name on it, and his own photo, the Wellington District Court heard today.

He told the woman he'd received a complaint about her clothing and told her to pull her top down, and that it was "not allowed to happen again", the police prosecutor said.

Makatea pleaded guilty to the charge of impersonating a police officer, but disputed part of the summary, his lawyer said.

"His instructions are . . . that her pants had actually fallen down and members of the public were looking at her and laughing," the lawyer said.

"He instructs that he asked her to pull her pants up and accepts that he shouldn't have dealth with it in the sitatuation by impersonating a police officer."

Judge Hobbs said if Makatea had issues with the summary details he should not have pleaded guilty.

He noted Makatea had two previous convictions for impersonating an officer, one from more than 10 years ago and the other from 20 years ago. He also has previous convictions "of a sexual nature".

Despite the fact Makatea is 80-years-old, his lawyer said he was able to do community work. Judge Hobbs noted he did not look 80-years-old.

Makatea is currently on parole and being monitored by Corrections.

Judge Hobbs sentenced him to 50 hours of community work.