Editorial: Defaulter's new life benefits everyone

As a police and court reporter for much of the previous decade, I got to know Nigel Dixon.

The teenager had the unenviable title as the central North Island's worst fines defaulter.

He was a right pain for police and was in and out of the courts more than most.

At 17 he miraculously racked up $43,000 in traffic fines. The figure was highlighted when a Rotorua District Court judge wiped the fines in exchange for 300 hours' community work.

The outcry was justified. If you broke the fines down to an hourly rate, Mr Dixon would have worked off his debt to society while being paid more than $143 an hour.

What riled people more at the time was when Mr Dixon told The Daily Post he chose not to pay the fines because he "hated the cops".

It wasn't long until he failed to turn up to community work and was jailed.

More years of being in and out of the courts for mainly dishonesty and traffic offences followed - not to mention hanging around with gang members.

Mr Dixon also spent time in the mental health facility Henry Bennett Centre in Hamilton having suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.

Now aged 26, Mr Dixon is a changed man and no longer needs medication.

We reported on his massive turnaround in Saturday's Daily Post.

He's found a new life after becoming a Christian at Rotorua's Destiny Church. He said he no longer hated police and was sorry for the trouble he had caused and people he had let down.

While Bishop Brian Tamaki and his followers at Destiny Church constantly create headlines for their ways, surely Mr Dixon's new life has to be positive for not only him but members of our community. His turnaround started last year, so is relatively new, but good on him, I say. Long may it continue. We look forward to not reading his name in the court news in years to come.