An Albury man incensed by a neighbour's security camera aimed directly at his home smashed the device with a broom but not before he was filmed.
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Christopher Wayne King tried to justify his crime several times when he fronted Albury Local Court on "invasion of privacy" grounds.
"It was on me as soon as I came out of my door," he said.
"And I was drunk, your honour."
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But magistrate Richard Funston rejected King's defence after he pleaded guilty this week to a single charge of destroy or damage property.
"It's menacing as well, menacing," Mr Funston told the 50-year-old, who police said had "an extensive criminal history".
"You don't just take the law into your own hands."
The court was told that King and the woman he indirectly targeted lived in the same NSW Department of Housing units.
Directly out the front of her unit she had installed several closed-circuit television cameras.
The woman went to bed on April 21 about 9.30pm, then woke at 1.30am to the sound of loud banging from out the front of her unit.
"The victim," police said, "viewed a television screen, which depicts the closed-circuit TV footage and noticed her camera at the front of house house was missing."
She then walked out the front and saw the camera smashed on the ground, but she couldn't see the culprit or anyone else.
When she went back inside she had another look at the footage. This showed King walking across a common area and towards the camera, which he smashed.
The victim handed over the footage to police when they interviewed her at home three days later.
King was fined $800 and ordered to pay $80 compensation.
