Dunedin Bottle-O liquor store burglar ‘millisecond’ from death

Thomas Bridgman was sentenced to eight months' home detention and 100 hours' community work when he appeared in the Dunedin District Court today. Photo / Rob Kidd

A Dunedin man who committed a liquor store burglary that ended in a fatal getaway was a millisecond from dying, a court has heard.

Thomas Bridgman, 25, appeared this afternoon in the Dunedin District Court, where he was sentenced to eight months’ home detention and 100 hours’ community work.

He and his friends were drinking on May 26 this year and hatched a plan to burgle a liquor store after they ran out of alcohol.

Shortly after 1am, the 29-year-old alleged driver took the group to the Bottle-O in Hillside Rd, driving a Mazda that had been stolen a month earlier.

Bridgman used bolt cutters to remove two padlocks on a door to a storage area then he and a co-defendant loaded seven crates of beer, worth $378, into the vehicle.

A bystander saw the men and confronted Bridgman after calling police.

“This goes no further,” Bridgman told him before leaving in the stolen car.

The car sped away with its headlights off but was spotted by police as it turned from Helena St into Hillside Rd.

Officers followed as the driver accelerated away, allegedly weaving through the grid of South Dunedin streets before crashing in Melbourne St.

The impact split a power pole and knocked over the concrete wall of a garage.

The scene of the crash in Melbourne St, South Dunedin, in May. Bridgman's friend Michael McClelland died at the scene. Photo / Stephen Jaquiery

Rear-left passenger Michael John McClelland, 26, died at the scene, while the man sitting beside him – against whom charges were dropped – was left unresponsive. He was placed in an induced coma for a day but later recovered.

Bridgman, who was in the front passenger seat, sustained “significant lacerations” to his face, the court heard.

He was seen trying to climb out of a window and was unco-operative when police arrived.

Two other men, including the alleged driver, were found nearby, police said.

Counsel Cate Andersen said the experience had had a life-changing effect on Bridgman.

“His friend died in the back and he understands it was just a millisecond that meant it was him who survived and his friend who died,” she said.

“He needs to make sure what happened wasn’t in vain.”

She said her client was now motivated to undergo one-on-one counselling or residential rehabilitation to address his problems with alcohol and drugs.

Judge David Robinson pointed out that, while Bridgman’s list of convictions was growing, his perspective appeared to be changing.

“You’re showing all the right signs of being someone who’s able to move past this,” he said.

A year before the incident, Bridgman was in the same courthouse on two other burglary convictions.

At the June 2022 sentencing, his counsel said Bridgman had given up alcohol and drugs and was keen to address his substance abuse issues.

Bridgman had been partying in the student sector with friends in September 2021.

The power of the impact was such that a power pole was split and the concrete wall of a garage was knocked over. Photo / Stephen Jaquiery

He and his associates stole electronics from a Hyde St flat then hit a Leith St property for more of the same, making off with more than $5000 of items.

Bridgman was still serving his supervision sentence at the time of the liquor store burglary, the court heard today.

His two co-defendants will appear in court again next year.