A French fruit picker working on a vineyard at Bendigo was airlifted to Dunedin Hospital last week, after getting stuck underneath a moving car without a driver.

Alexandra Police Senior Constable Graham Perkins said the car was parked on an incline and started to roll backwards, picking up speed as it headed towards the fruit picker and knocked him over.

“He became wedged underneath the vehicle which dragged him and rolled him and then spat him out the front,” he said.

The incident happened on Lakeview Rd on private property so police wouldn’t be laying charges as it was a Worksafe New Zealand issue.

Snr Const Perkins said he wasn’t sure how severe the man's injuries were, but it was obviously an extremely unpleasant experience for the backpacker - having not long arrived in New Zealand.

In other police news, a civil dispute between a landlord and tenant in Omakau last week, resulted in the 65-year-old owner of the property being charged with cultivating cannabis.

Snr Const Perkins said an argument broke out between the pair about unpaid rent, and the landlord called police.

The local officer walked past the garage and smelled the cannabis. Five mature plants were later discovered, which had been harvested, along with a large quantity of marijuana on the bench.

Back in Alexandra last weekend, two Central Otago men, aged 19 and 20, were arrested by police for interfering with a patrol car in Queenstown.

Snr Const Perkins said one of the men was also charged with endangering transport after police had to pull over on the way to a job and pump up their tyres.

Endangering transport carries a maximum sentence of 14 years' imprisonment. The pair were also identified by CCTV footage for stealing a taxi sign off the roof of another vehicle.

They appeared in the Queenstown District Court on Monday morning and were bailed with conditions, which includes a curfew.