Waiheke businessman convicted of indecently assaulting 21-year-old woman in car

The court was told how the woman, then 21, had just started working for the man, who is in his 70s, on Waiheke Island. Photo / File

A senior Waiheke businessman has been convicted of indecently assaulting a young woman who worked for him, shattering her life, a court has heard.

The man was refused permanent name suppression but will appeal the decision so his name cannot be reported yet.

This afternoon at the Auckland District Court he was sentenced to 12 months supervision after earlier admitting a charge of indecent assault.

His application for a discharge without conviction was declined by Judge Evangelos Thomas.

The court was told how the woman, then 21, had just started working for the man, who is in his 70s.

She was excited about the role because it was her first not in hospitality.

On March 18 last year, the man offered to give the woman a ride from her home and shortly after she hopped in the front seat, made sexual advances and touched her leg.

She rebuffed the advances but he then grabbed her breasts over her clothes.

"Again you did not take no for an answer," the judge said while reading the facts of the case.

The man apologised and blamed his Parkinson's medication but asked to hold her hand.

She obliged but Thomas said she "had no answers for the situation that she found herself in".

After they got to their destination, the man apologised again.

The effect of the indecent assault was so severe for the young woman she felt she needed to leave the island the next day - a place she'd called her home since she was 3.

"She left behind her innocence, she left behind her trust, she left behind her ability to believe in people, she left behind her self esteem, she left behind her confidence," Thomas said.

He said the man "shattered" the young woman's life.

The woman said in an impact statement that she had trusted the man and she had had to leave Waiheke out of fear of seeing him again.

Since the assault she'd also suffered many sleepless nights and anxiety as well as leaving behind her job, family and friends and support network.

She estimated the financial costs she incurred because of what the man had done and her subsequent moving costs at more than $6300.

After admitting the charge of indecent assault at an earlier appearance the man applied for a discharge without conviction.

His lawyer, Todd Greenwood, submitted that a conviction would affect the man's ability to take a cruise with a stop in Canada which he had booked and would also affect his business.

The lawyer submitted a statement from the man's doctor saying "hyper-sexuality" was a side-effect of the man's Parkinson's medication.

But Thomas said that in the 23 years the man had been taking the drugs, he'd not exhibited the side-effects before.

The man would have to live with the consequences of the conviction, Thomas said. He declined the application for a discharge.

However, the judge said a mitigating factor was t was the man's first offence at 71. His Parkinson's Disease was another one.

He sentenced the man to 12 months' supervision and gave him his first strike warning.

The man also applied for permanent name suppression, claiming the embarrassment of having the facts published would affect his business and those close to him.

Thomas also declined that application.

However, Greenwood said they intended to appeal so the man was granted interim suppression for 21 days so the appeal could be lodged with the High Court at Auckland.