Havoc does DJ service for fines

The HoS report:

DJ Mikey Havoc has a debt to society – and is paying it off the same way he makes his living.

The former Push Push rocker, now a 95bFM morning DJ, amassed at least $20,000 in traffic fines over a number of years. …

The system allows people to carry out between 40 and 400 hours of work instead. The Department of Corrections website describes it as allowing “offenders [to] make compensation to society for their offending”.

So that would mean an affective rate of $50 to $500 an hour. And that is net. Normally you would need to earn around 20% more than that to cover tax. And what did he have to do?

Havoc confirmed he had arranged to clear the debt through work: “Shifting shit around and doing stuff other people can’t be f***ed doing”.

However, the Herald on Sunday has learned that Havoc’s punishment is remarkably similar to the work he does on radio in the morning – spinning records for students.

Havoc does the breakfast shift on 95bFM from the second floor of the Auckland University Student Association building. Then, according to AUSA general manager Tom O’Connor, Havoc works off his fines by playing music for students on campus – in the quad outside the radio studios.

O’Connor said the student association normally hired DJs to play for three hours over lunch for about $150.

“He is working as a DJ in the main quad, working for us free.”

I don’t think being a DJ is what most people would regard as community service.

It would be like me getting let off any traffic fines I incur, by doing community service as a blogger.