Nicholas Naqura Apisa Tawa was given a 12 month supervised and six month Community Corrections Orders, with the conditions he partake in drug and alcohol counselling and anger management.

He faced court charged with assaulting a police officer, resisting officers in the execution of duty, destroy/damage property, stalk/intimidate/intend fear of physical harm, and two fail to appear for arrest warrant.

The 21-year-old who now lives in Griffith, was arrested in December last year after threatening a taxi driver, breaking a glass door and resisting police.

The Sydney taxi driver picked up the heavily intoxicated Tawa from Cockle Bay Wharf, who became agitated during the drive. 

Tawa fell asleep and was unable to be woken up by the driver, and when he did finally wake, threatened the driver saying he would smack the car window and hit him if he wasn't let out.

The driver called police when Tawa left, and while on the phone heard sounds of smashing glass near a block of units.

When police arrived, they saw wet footprints leading to the front door, which had several cracks.

Continuing to follow the footprints, police found Tawa hiding up against the stairway wall. When telling him he was under arrest, Tawa went up stairs and initially refused to step away from the wall or hand over his wallet for ID, saying "I don't agree with that".

He then told police to "go f*** yourselves" when they tried to search him, and raised his hand to one of the officers who grabbed his arm and tried to gain control.

Tawa broke free and pushed the officer in the face, and was eventually restrained by both officers after a tactical take-down.

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Tawa's legal representative Conor Cregan said he had shown a great deal of remorse for his treatment of the taxi driver and the police, and noted that he had no other similar offences on his record. 

He also said he had paid $400 to the owner of the broken glass for repair costs.

Magistrate Joy Boulos said "you just can't behave in this way."

"Taxi drivers pick up drunk people all the time… they need to be able to conduct their business without fear of assault," she said.

Since Tawa had no history of this nature, Magistrate Boulos gave the orders of community corrections, and convicted him of failing to appear without a penalty.

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