Yannick Romaric Tevi appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday for sentence on five charges, including drink-driving causing death and dangerous driving.
Dunedin oral and maxillofacial surgeon Philip James Cox was killed and Arthur Leslie Blondell injured in an accident near Millers Flat caused by Tevi on March 7.
Tevi had stolen a work van and had been driving on the wrong side of the road when the accident occurred. He had a blood-alcohol level of 123mg.
Counsel Mike Newell said the defendant was "deeply remorseful and deeply sorry" for the grief he had caused Mr Cox's family.
Tevi accepted imprisonment was the only appropriate punishment.
"On the night the driving took place, he had been drinking. He was depressed and unhappy, and foolishly made the decision to take the work van and go for a drive."
Alcohol and the fact people drove on the right-hand side of the road in Vanuatu were factors in the accident, Mr Newell said.
While employed as an orchard worker in Roxburgh, Tevi had saved $3000 to enable him to join his girlfriend in Czechoslovakia, and had offered to pay that money as reparation to the victims and their families.
Judge Stephen O'Driscoll said there were significant aggravating factors in the defendant's offending, including the death of a man, excessive alcohol consumption and the significant distance driven by Tevi before the accident.
Others had attempted to stop Tevi from driving and if he had listened "perhaps circumstances might have been different", he said.
"This was clearly a terrible tragedy that occurred with the lethal combination of driving after drinking and when you did not have a licence."
The maximum penalty for drink-driving causing death is five years' imprisonment and the judge set a starting point of 4 years. He deducted 18 months to take into account Tevi's guilty plea, his lack of previous convictions and his offer to pay reparation, finishing with a three-year jail term.
Concurrent jail terms of 2 years for drink-driving causing injury, two months for dangerous driving and six months for unlawfully taking a vehicle were also handed down, and for driving without a licence, Tevi was convicted and discharged.
He was disqualified from driving for three years and ordered to pay $1500 reparation to Mr Cox's family and $1500 to Mr Blondell.
