A Canadian man, frustrated with the way urban development was disturbing his peace and tranquility, has been convicted and fined for taking matters into his own hands.
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Justin Wilson, 53, was charged with damage to property after he threw rocks at a house that was being constructed on the adjoining block of land.
The court heard that at 7.30am on 7 June 2018, a tradesperson was working on the house building site next to Wilson’s residence when a handful of rocks was thrown and landed near the person painting the exterior of the house.
Shortly after a second handful of rocks was thrown.
According to the police summary, a third handful of rocks was thrown and the accused had yelled “F**k off” to the tradesperson.
The worker then noticed a window near where some of the rocks had landed was smashed, and they then reported the incident to police.
When interviewed, the police informant said Wilson “made partial admissions about throwing rocks” but had said he “didn’t do it on purpose.”
Wilson’s defence lawyer said his client had been living at Canadian for some years and had previously enjoyed a peaceful and tranquil life surrounded by grassland, but that over the past 12 months there had been a huge increase in property development.
He said there had been previous “confrontations over fencing issues” and that Wilson has also been angry about what he perceived as “a lack of respect for his right to privacy from tradespeople” because they had created a lot of noise and had played loud music.
Magistrate Bob Kumar told Wilson “it was a silly thing to do”, fined him $500 and ordered him to pay $500 for the broken window.