Reality TV star Matt Wright displayed a “cavalier” attitude in operating his helicopter from his home to the annoyance of neighbours, a judge says.

Wright was fined $10,000 fine for the rule breach.

The Outback Wrangler star, who is in jail for trying to pervert the course of justice following a fatal chopper crash, pleaded guilty to one count of contravening a development permit.

On Monday, lawyer Luke Officer asked Judge Greg Macdonald in the Darwin Local Court to show leniency to his client, whose Supreme Court trial had been “financially devastating”.

Macdonald said Wright had been issued an enforcement notice not to fly choppers to and from his home but he intentionally contravened it on April 26, 2024.

His offending was “egregious, cavalier, indicative of someone who might be said to be thumbing their nose”.

“Landing helicopters in residential areas, albeit five-acre (two-hectare) blocks, would be quite disturbing and disruptive to the peace of the neighbourhood,” Macdonald said, noting there was a childcare centre less than 500 metres away.

He said Wright’s world was “crumbling into a quagmire” of legal conflict and dispute in April 2024. He noted Wright’s contributions to the community, along with glowing character references at his Supreme Court sentencing.

Before imposing the $10,000 fine, Macdonald noted Wright had suffered a “spectacular fall from grace” and said leniency was appropriate.

Wright’s neighbours complained to the Development Consent Authority in 2021, fed up at having noisy choppers landing and taking off near their bushland homes at Virginia, 30 kilometres from Darwin.

Wright appealed the enforcement notice to the Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal, claiming he had the right to use his choppers “like a motor car”. The tribunal disagreed.

The 46-year-old was not required to appear in court from jail on Monday.

Officer said Wright was jailed and had lost his air-operating certificate and pilot’s licence so there would be no repeat offending.

“He can’t fly a helicopter any more and he’s sold his property,” he said.

Wright had run several successful tourism businesses but had just two left after his costly Supreme Court trial, Officer said.

Asked by Macdonald what capacity Wright had to pay a fine, Officer replied “very little”.

Matt Wright flouted an enforcement notice not to fly choppers to and from his home.

In the Supreme Court in December, Acting Justice Alan Blow sentenced Wright to 10 months in prison on two counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice, suspended after he serves five months.

Wright lost his best mate and co-star Chris “Willow” Wilson in a February 2022 chopper crash that left pilot Sebastian Robinson a paraplegic.

It happened during a crocodile-egg collecting trip in Arnhem Land while Wilson was slung on a line below a chopper to drop onto nests in remote swampland.

Wright was accused of lying to crash investigators about the amount of fuel in the machine, of trying to get Robinson to falsify flying hours and of asking a friend to “torch” the helicopter’s maintenance release.

On August 29, a jury found Wright guilty on the first two counts but could not reach agreement on the third torching accusation.

Prosecutors alleged Wright was worried investigators would learn his choppers’ flying-hour meters were regularly disconnected to extend hours beyond official thresholds, with paperwork falsified to match.

The prosecution did not allege Wright caused the chopper crash, the death of Wilson or Robinson’s injuries.

Wright plans to appeal the convictions.

-AAP