Video posted to Instagram shows a wild party on Auckland's North Shore under alert level 3. Video / Supplied
A man who threw an infamous North Shore house party during lockdown last year has pleaded guilty and been ordered to pay a fine of $800.
He appeared at North Shore District Court this afternoon charged with failing to comply with the Covid-19 Health Order.
The Auckland-based roofer entered a guilty plea through his lawyer Johann Schlebusch, who said the man was remorseful, takes responsibility and wanted to conclude the matter "as soon as possible".
He said the man was throwing a party for his brother, but he became intoxicated and passed out and then discovered a crowd of 70-100 people had gathered at the home.
"This escalated well beyond his control," said Schlebusch. He said there was a small group before 10pm.
The man stood at the back of the courtroom wearing a face mask and clutching a cap.
Videos of the Redvale party posted to social media showed around 50 young people drinking, dancing, kissing and gyrating on the floor, and on a beer pong table.
It was held on October 17 when the country was under alert level 3 restrictions trying to fight the Delta outbreak.
At the time Redvale was a suburb of interest with testing showing a high positivity rate for the virus.
The party, which blatantly flouted restrictions, was widely criticised including by the director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield and Auckland mayor Phil Goff, who labelled attendees "selfish people choosing to behave like idiots".
Police issued 14 infringement notices to people who attended the party, including the 28-year-old who hosted it.
The partygoers were widely criticised, including by Auckland mayor Phil Goff. Photo / Supplied
A 23-year-old who attended the party said he was inundated with hate messages afterwards – but understands why and dobbed himself in to police.
"I knew what I was doing was breaching the law of the Covid restrictions which is something that I'm not proud of," Jaydn McCarthy said at the time.
"All I can really do is say how sorry I am and sincerely apologise to all the communities, the households for being at that party. I know my actions were irresponsible and placed a lot of people at risk."
Property owner Darsan Singh said there were five people living at the rural Redvale home and while they didn't all attend, they were sorry and conscious of what people must think of them now.
She said many partygoers were unknown to the tenants and were hard to find in the days since.
"It is quite a fragile subject. Talking to (the tenants) most of them said they don't know those people."
