Zach Andrew Charles Bellringer was discharged without conviction in New Plymouth District Court on Monday. He previously pleaded guilty to a charge of indecent assault.

A Taranaki man who reached up a woman's skirt and touched her bottom while at a night club has been discharged without conviction.

"He's not the Harvey Weinstein of New Plymouth," defence lawyer Nathan Bourke said of Zach Andrew Charles Bellringer at New Plymouth District Court.

"He made a mistake."

Bellringer, 27, was back in court where an application for a discharge without conviction was heard after he previously admitted a charge of indecently assaulting a female over the age of 16.

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The application was opposed by the Crown.

According to the summary of facts, Bellringer was grossly intoxicated at El Fuego at Our Place in New Plymouth around 10pm on October 12, 2018.

He and his female victim were friends and together they were socialising with other friends on the deck at the back of the bar.

Bellringer was standing next to the woman when he reached up her skirt and firmly touched her bottom over her underwear, the summary of facts stated.

Immediately the woman pulled her body away and asked him: "what the f*** are you doing?". To which Bellringer laughed, the summary said.

The woman told her partner what happened and a fight broke out between the man and Bellringer.

At Monday's hearing, Bourke said the offending was a "fleeting grab" of the woman's bottom.

He made the distinction between Bellringer and disgraced movie mogul Weinstein, recently jailed for rape and sexual assault, saying Bellringer did not act with the intention to harm, humiliate or for sexual gratification.

"It is at the lower end of the scale for offending of this charge type," Bourke said.

The consequence of an indecency conviction, which would see Bellringer given a strike warning, was not in line with the crime, Bourke argued.

Such a conviction meant there was a risk Bellringer would not be able to travel to the United Kingdom (UK) where he planned to visit a family member and work.

Bellringer had already been punished at a "street level" by having been assaulted, knocked unconscious and hospitalised for his actions, Bourke said.

He had also been "named and shamed", bringing his family into disrepute.

At the time of the incident, Bellringer was serving a sentence for drink driving designed to address his levels of alcohol use.

Bourke said Bellringer had since self-referred to a counsellor and had stopped drinking alcohol.

​Crown prosecutor Georgia Milne accepted the offending was low level but did not accept Bourke's argument that it was not done in the interest of Bellringer's own sexual gratification.

"It's sexual invasion - touching someone's buttocks - so I don't think that necessarily distinguishes it from other indecency type offences," she said.

She submitted the implications from such a conviction were not disproportionate to Bellringer's offending, saying they were simply the adverse effects from a general conviction.

Bellringer had no clear plan to head abroad rather just a hope to one day travel to the UK, she said.

After consideration of the submissions, Judge Gregory Hikaka granted the application, saying he was satisfied the consequences of a conviction would be out of all proportion to the seriousness of the offence.

However, he ordered Bellringer pay $500 emotional harm reparation to the victim and $500 to Women's Refuge.