A killer woman drunk driver sentenced to home detention, after she convinced a judge not to jail her because of her phobia about strange places, is now behind bars.
A High Court judge this week upheld a police appeal against the sentence of 12 months' home detention imposed on unemployed Papakura woman, Lesley Caudwell, 42, and substituted a jail term of two years and three months, The New Zealand Herald reported.
Caudwell admitting driving while incapable and causing death, and dangerous driving causing death, after her car crashed into Tara Groenestein's car near Pukekohe on November 16 last year.
Ms Groenestein, 36, died at the scene.
Caudwell's blood-alcohol level was 1100 micrograms, nearly three times the legal breath-alcohol limit, and the crown had sought a four-year jail term. When she was originally sentenced in August to home detention and disqualified from driving for four years, Judge Gus Andree Wiltens said a jail term would cause her "difficulty" because of her fear of unfamiliar places.
The judge also gave Caudwell a 50 percent discount on her sentence because of her early guilty plea, her remorse and the fact she was caring for her cancer-stricken mother.
He said a jail term would be disproportionately severe.
Earlier this week Justice John Hansen ruled the home detention sentence was "manifestly inadequate" and ordered Caudwell to hand herself in to Papatoetoe police to begin a jail term of two years and three months.
He said there was no "evidential basis" the agoraphobia would be disproportionately excessive if Caudwell was jailed.
He also said Judge Wiltens had failed to ascertain -- or inquire -- if Caudwell's phobia could be adequately monitored in prison and said he had been too generous granting a 50 percent sentence reduction in her sentence.
Justice Hansen said Caudwell's driving was so bad a higher starting point for sentencing could have been justified, but was not sought by the crown.
Ms Groenestein's father, Felix, described the outcome as reasonable.
He said it would not bring his daughter back but the new sentence acknowledged justice had now been done.
