All Black Sione Lauaki is in trouble again - this time for property damage.

Lauaki appeared in court charged with trashing property at an Auckland motel early on New Year's Day, the Herald reported on Sunday.

He appeared at the Auckland District Court on New Year's Day, charged with intentionally damaging three windows and a television at the Greenlane Motor Inn, opposite Auckland's Ellerslie Racecourse.

Lauaki and a female companion believed to be his girlfriend arrived at the motel at 5.50am (03.30 AEDT) and paid for a ground-floor unit. Soon after staff heard raised voices and windows being smashed.

After the pair had been in the room for just five minutes, the motel owner called police and the couple was taken away in separate vehicles to the police station.

It is believed Lauaki lost his temper when his girlfriend said she wanted to leave him.

Lauaki last week paid the $NZ700 ($A585) repair bill.

His lawyer had applied for diversion, but it was unlikely to be granted if he admitted a second offence. In February 2006, Lauaki was offered police diversion after admitting assaulting a security officer in the North Island city of Hamilton.

The 27-year-old Chiefs loose forward, who made his international debut in 2005, is at least the 11th All Black to appear in criminal court in the past five years.

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