A 19-year-old allegedly involved had “swapped the keys to his new pride and joy for a court appearance”, police said.
“A furore ensued on the community grapevines given a prized community asset had been damaged,” Sergeant Graham Bennett said.
Information was passed to police, and a vehicle of interest had been identified. Police said they had also interviewed the driver.
A 19-year-old Hobsonville man had been charged with intentional damage as well as other driving offences.
“The driver has had his newly purchased vehicle impounded.”
Wheeler said he lived close to the club, but didn’t hear anything when the damage happened about 1.40am.
This wasn’t the first time drivers had ripped up the field, he said.
“Probably in the last six weeks, we’ve had a couple of occasions where we had people on the field, but not to the same extent.
“This one on Saturday was, yeah, next level.”
Wheeler said the club was lucky no games were planned on Saturday.
“It created a bit of outrage among the club and around the community.”
The council inspected the field today and told him contractors would do some extra work to get the field operational for the club day this weekend.
“It won’t look ideal and they might be a little bit hard to run on underfoot, but they’re going to try and make them as safe as possible so that we can play.”
Police said the arrest was a reminder about consequences.
“We will not tolerate this behaviour in the community given the risks posed and damage created.”
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