A German-speaking tourist from Liechtenstein became paranoid and used a pepper-spray at an Arthur’s Pass hostel after drinking beer and smoking cannabis.
“Unfortunately, he smoked cannabis when he was not used to it. Maybe that says something about New Zealand cannabis,” said defence counsel Nick Rout when Simon Christopher Haas admitted one charge in the Christchurch District Court today.
Haas admitted a charge of possessing a disabling substance – the pepper-spray he had bought in Germany for his protection while travelling in Australia and New Zealand.
Haas carried the spray through Australia without incident and brought it on to New Zealand knowing it was illegal, said police prosecutor Sergeant Mark Berryman.
At a hostel dormitory in Arthur’s Pass on the evening of June 9, he consumed a small quantity of beer and cannabis, and at 1.50am the next morning “became paranoid about the other guests”.
He pulled out the pepper-spray and sprayed it at the other people in the dormitory.
Mr Rout said no-one was hit or hurt by the spray, which had been done “haphazardly”, and no-one had complained about it. Haas himself had called the police because he still felt at risk, but ended up being arrested himself.
He said Haas, a tourist from Liechtenstein, said he had no other criminal convictions.
Liechtenstein is a tiny principality just 25km across, with a population in 2013 of just 36,925. Lonely Planet describes it as “a pipsqueak of a country”.
Judge Tom Gilbert was told that Haas planned to leave New Zealand within a week. He imposed a fine of $600 and ordered destruction of the pepper-spray.
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