Last updated 12:40, August 11 2017
Bradley Taylor was convicted of setting a series of fake bombs in Hamilton parks.
A volunteer firefighter jailed for planting fake bombs in public toilets has had his sentence quashed.
Bradley Taylor sparked four bomb squad callouts after alerting police to fake explosive devices he planted in Hamilton parks.
He was sentenced to two years and six months imprisonment in October 2016, which he appealed. Justice Mark Woolford quashed the "manifestly excessive" sentence at the Hamilton High Court.
Christel Yardley/ STUFF
Bomb disposal experts were called four times to suspicious packages planted by Bradley Taylor.
In a judgment given on June 20, Woolford said the sentencing judge erred in imprisoning Taylor and instead sentenced him to ten months home detention.
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As Taylor had already spent eight months in prison, he will spend two months on home detention.
The volunteer firefighter pled guilty to four charges of threatening harm to people, and property and guilty to one charge of stealing $6000 worth of equipment from the Ngaruawahia Fire Brigade in 2016.
Taylor also worked as a Hamilton City Council parks groundsman involved in preparations for the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
His antics had the city on edge over a period of days with the hoaxes resulting in repeated calls for bomb disposal experts and disruptions for city park users as he taunted police with notes attached to the fake bombs.
In June 2015, he called 111 to report an explosive device found in the female toilets of Gower Park.
The New Zealand Defence Force Improvised Explosive Device Team travelled from Auckland to disarm the device, which was found to be a small length of PVC pipe and wire held together with electrical tape.
He repeated the stunt the next day, calling 111 for a package similar to the first, with six bottles of coloured liquid and a note saying, "Sorry about yesterday this one is the right one".
The next week another groundsman found a similar device in the same spot, this time containing nails, ammunition and cotton wadding. Yet again, the bomb squad was called.
Taylor escalated the stunt the fourth time, calling 111 to report he was standing on a bomb that was buzzing, and would detonate if he moved.
The bomb squad was flown to Hamilton by police helicopter to find again a fake bomb.
When police searched Taylor's home they found $6000 worth of equipment stolen from the Ngaruawahia Fire Station.
In his appeal judgment, Woolford noted the offending was out of character, Taylor had been diagnosed with depression, and had taken a voluntary anger management course while on bail.
- Stuff
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