A Queenstown man caught drink-driving in his landlord’s vehicle while serving an alcohol interlock sentence told police he did not know it was illegal because he "does not study the law".
About 5pm, after drinking beer throughout the day, he drove the car from his Goldfield Heights home to a petrol station in Frankton Rd to buy cigarettes.
When police turned up at his home and breath-tested him, his level of 894mcg was more than three times the legal limit.
He told them he did not realise he could not drive other vehicles without an interlock because he did not understand the rules.
Bester was sentenced in the Queenstown District Court yesterday on charges of aggravated drink-driving and breaching an alcohol interlock licence.
Judge Russell Walker said the defendant received an alcohol interlock sentence in January after being caught driving in Robins Rd with a breath-alcohol level of 906mcg.
Not only had he been caught driving a vehicle without an interlock a few months later, he had recorded another high alcohol level, which meant he had posed a serious risk to other road users.
Bester had also failed to complete community work imposed on him in January.
A pre-sentence report said he was "not motivated", despite being given many chances to engage by his probation officer.
"When spoken to, you have the best of intentions, but you never follow through with what you say."
After applying a discount for the defendant’s guilty plea and cancelling his existing community work sentence, Judge Walker came to a nominal sentence of 11 months’ prison, which he commuted to six months’ community detention.
He imposed new alcohol interlock provisions and 12 months’ supervision, warning the defendant more offending of the same kind could land him in prison.
— Guy Williams, PIJF court reporter
