A judge has told a Queenstown tattooist to buy a Lotto ticket after throwing out a receiving charge against him.

Judge Russell Walker dismissed the charge against Deane John Jones, 48, in the Queenstown District Court on Tuesday after three hours of evidence about the comings and goings of a Nissan station wagon in 2021.

The complainant, Jacynda Wallace, told the court she lent the car to a friend, Daniel Scott, on May 9 that year on the understanding it was only for a day.

Scott never returned it and eventually blocked her on social media, although he was convicted last year on a charge stemming from his unlawful use of the vehicle.

Wallace then saw the car by chance on June 8, 2021, at a Frankton service station.

When she told the man behind the wheel it had been stolen from her, he replied he had bought it “legitimately” and had receipts to prove it.

She did not know the man, but “assumed he was the local tattooist” because of his body art.

She reported it stolen two days later.

Invercargill woman Sonia Robinson also gave evidence, that revealed a coincidence.

On the same day - June 8, 2021 - that Wallace saw her car in the service station, the vehicle had been delivered to Robinson at 8pm.

Robinson and her partner had been offered the station wagon in exchange for her ute, which they had advertised for sale on social media.

After an exchange of messages between Robinson’s partner and a woman called Vanessa Jones, a man Robinson recognised as the defendant delivered the vehicle to their home and drove away in the ute.

Soon after registering its ownership under her name, the couple discovered on a motor vehicle ownership records website it was stolen, Robinson said.

Jones’ counsel, Paul Norcross, said although the defendant had admitted to buying the station wagon, the police had no admissible evidence of him receiving it from Scott, nor of having it in his possession.

The police could not make out he had received a stolen vehicle because Wallace had given it to Scott with her consent and did not immediately report it as stolen.

Norcross said the police claim the vehicle had been stolen was at odds with the charge under which Scott had been convicted, which was unlawfully using a vehicle for pecuniary purposes but “not to be guilty of theft”.

Judge Walker accepted Norcross’ argument and dismissed the charge, telling the defendant he was lucky.

“Jones, you should buy a Lotto ticket on the way home.”