Hamilton man hijacks ambulance when staff won’t take him to hospital for abscess on his bottom

Levi Ihimaera, 33, used a metal grill to smash the passenger window of the St John Ambulance to gain access, then drive it twice into the motel. Photo / Supplied

A man who was frustrated St John staff wouldn’t treat an abscess on his buttocks hijacked their ambulance and crashed it twice into a motel while one of the paramedics was still inside.

Levi Ihimaera was on a court-imposed curfew at the time he smashed his way into the vehicle which was parked at the Microtel Motel on Hamilton’s Ulster St on November 26, last year.

His lawyer, Elisa Saunders, told Judge Paul Mabey, KC, in the Hamilton District Court recently that he wasn’t sure whether he was allowed to leave on medical grounds so called an ambulance.

However, St John staff who attended said the infection wasn’t worth going to hospital for and instead told him to go to his GP.

Court documents state he then got “unco-operative and aggressive” and 30 minutes later the staff went back to their ambulance, which was parked nearby.

Ihimaera followed them so they locked themselves inside the ambulance, concerned about his behaviour.

He sat on the metal step, at the back of the ambulance, for about 10 minutes.

He then got up, grabbed a metal grill from a nearby manhole, and threw it through the front left passenger window, shattering it.

One of the victims, in the driver’s seat, immediately got out and fled.

Ihimaera reached inside the smashed window and unlocked the door before clambering in to the driver’s seat.

However, unbeknown to Ihimaera another St John staff member was hiding in the back of the vehicle behind a patient bed.

Ihimaera reversed the vehicle out on to the street before driving it forward and crashing it into the motel.

He did that again, causing “significant” damage to the ambulance.

The second victim managed to get out through a side door and run to safety.

Meanwhile, Ihimaera got out and sat on the footpath where he was arrested by police a short time later.

‘Complicated offending for a complicated person’

The 33-year-old appeared for sentencing in court on a raft of charges, including 13 for shoplifting and theft, but also intentional damage and theft of an ambulance.

Battling to save him from a prison sentence, Saunders told Judge Mabey that her client had spent every year since he was 17 doing stints in prison, rather than getting the help he needed.

Saunders said the easy option would be to send Ihimaera to prison for a short time, however, he’d likely be out soon and back to his old ways.

The harder option was to give him a lengthy stint of intensive supervision to alleviate his complex mental health needs.

Levi Ihimaera didn't realise one of the St John paramedics was still in the back of the ambulance when he crashed it twice into the motel, his counsel said. Photo / Supplied

“It’s complicated offending because he’s a complicated person.”

Saunders said the ambulance offending came about as Ihimaera had quite a “bad abscess” around the site on his buttocks where he gets his medication injected.

“I did sight it the next day and it was substantially bad and, while he was there, the ambulance driver has explained to him that it was not worth him going to hospital over it and that he should go to a GP,” Saunders said.

“Due to his mental health issues as well as his lack of communication skills, he essentially lashed out like a child is probably the best way of putting it.

“He accepts that completely ... and accepts just how bad that was.

“It is less to do with doing anything out of malice and more to do with frustration.”

Saunders added that it took two more weeks in prison before he got treatment for his infection.

Ihimaera had various issues and had been diagnosed with PTSD after being involved in two crashes with his mother when he was younger and becoming a drug addict by the age of 9.

Judge Mabey said he was prepared to give Ihimaera a chance but told him if he didn’t start addressing his “extreme need for help” for his issues he would go back to jail again.

Ihimaera, who had already served four months in custody, was sentenced to two years’ intensive supervision.

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for nine years and has been a journalist for 20.