Self-confessed car lover Karn Clarrie Forrest, of Milton, will have his car confiscated and crushed, after his third conviction for driving a vehicle with a sustained loss of traction.
Despite initially agreeing to an interview with the Otago Daily Times, the 18-year-old remained elusive after appearing before Judge Stephen O'Driscoll in the Balclutha District Court, sitting in Gore, yesterday.
Forrest was stopped by police after performing two "doughnuts" in his car on State Highway 1, north of Milton, on September 29.
A passenger in that vehicle, Rhiane Dunn (18), of Milton, said his flatmate would be devastated to have the car he was doing up crushed.
Forrest, in his expletive-laden Facebook profile, wrote someone had "narked" on him for doing doughnuts, and he was planning to put a turbocharger in the Toyota.
"i love me carz an burnouts," he wrote.
Mr Dunn said the three-strike rule would do little to deter boy racers and he hoped he and his friends would be able to watch the car being crushed. Boy racers would continue to drive down rural roads to do burnouts unless they were given their own designated area, he said.
"We do it for fun, really."
However, outgoing Police Minister Judith Collins told the ODT the crushing of the Toyota would "send a very strong message to illegal street racers that police are serious about stopping their reckless and dangerous behaviour on our roads".
"The new law targets the thing that matters most to illegal street racers: their cars."
The Land Transport (Enforcement Powers) Amendment Act and the Sentencing (Vehicle Confiscation) Amendment Act came into force in December 2009.
"So far, it has been a very effective deterrent," Mrs Collins said, citing a 15% drop in illegal street-racer offences between 2009 and 2010, and saying they had continued to fall.
"Currently, there are 86 people nationwide who have received two previous convictions for illegal street racing.
"This driver is the first who has pushed his luck with the law once too often."
The boy racer law allows police to charge drivers and impound their vehicles for an "unnecessary exhibition of speed" or "sustained loss of traction", allowing vehicles to be seized and destroyed if a driver commits street-racing offences three times.
Senior Constable Jim Jordan, of Milton, said the Toyota had been impounded for 28 days, but was released after the payment of a fee, but now a warrant would be issued by the courts for it to be seized.
"From a police point of view, it is a timely reminder for boy racers ... Be prepared for the consequence.
"Most of them love their cars and they probably would rather lose an arm and a leg than lose their cars."
It was likely the car would be crushed in Dunedin.
After the September incident, Forrest was charged with driving while disqualified and driving a vehicle with a sustained loss of traction.
He had accelerated hard at the intersection of Narrowdale Rd and SH1 at 11.40pm, causing the vehicle to sustain a loss of traction.
He then spun the wheels of the vehicle, causing it to spin around in a circle, twice, before driving off.
Police followed Forrest and stopped him on SH1 at Milton. He admitted being a disqualified driver and causing a sustained loss of traction.
Prosecutor Sergeant Penny Stratford noted as it was his third conviction for driving with a sustained loss of traction, his car could be confiscated and destroyed.
Judge O'Driscoll ordered the Toyota, registration number KS6755, to be confiscated and destroyed under the Sentencing Act.
"The difficulty is that he has clearly not learned his lessons," Judge O'Driscoll said.
Forrest was convicted on both charges, sentenced to 150 hours' community work and disqualified from diving for 13 months, effective from August 13 next year when his present disqualification ends.
