Jail for drunken cutlery attack on car, mistaken for police car

Photo / NZ Herald

A grieving Oamaru man has been jailed for drunkenly attacking what he thought was a police car with a knife and fork.

Jason Geoffrey Doublett, 52, appeared for sentencing in the Oamaru District Court this week, by video link from prison.

Doublett has been in custody since his arrest last month, after becoming grossly intoxicated and vandalising a vehicle he believed belonged to a police officer.

Counsel Katherine Henry explained the man was “in a bit of a state” due to a personal loss he had suffered, a close friend “essentially dying in his arms” a short time before the incident.

“He had some issues with the way he was spoken to by police at the time his friend had died,” Henry said.

While the court heard the experience had been very traumatic for the man, Judge Campbell Savage did not condone Doublett’s “personal vendetta against the police”.

About 2.15pm on June 10, Doublett had been drinking on his own before approaching a parked vehicle in Eden St.

Court documents revealed the man began “scratching the entire paintwork on all four sides of the motor vehicle with a knife and fork” before removing both number plates.

The victim returned to his vehicle and confronted Doublett before taking a large boning knife and two smaller knives from the defendant.

A search of the man’s belongings revealed a resealable bag with 3.55g of cannabis inside.

By drinking alcohol and consuming non-prescribed drugs, Doublett was breaching a sentence of intensive supervision he was serving at the time.

Doublett was convicted of intentional damage, possessing a knife and possessing cannabis.

He was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment and ordered to pay $450 reparation to the victim.