An Oamaru man who fled after crashing his car into a power pole in Tarras was found injured and hypothermic six hours later.
Several businesses in the Central Otago village had to temporarily close after the toppled pole left exposed cables lying over the fence of the village’s school, the Queenstown District Court heard on Monday.
Daniel Scott, 38, was driving through the village about 9.30am on June 24 last year when he veered across the centre line and smashed into the pole on the opposite side of the road.
Scott hid on a nearby farm before he was found near Ardgour Rd about 3.30pm, suffering from hypothermia and crash injuries.
At Dunstan Hospital, where he was taken for treatment, he refused a doctor’s request to take blood for a drug and alcohol analysis.
He was sentenced on Monday on charges of dangerous driving, aggravated disqualified driving, aggravated refusing a health practitioner’s request and possessing a methamphetamine pipe.
He had 43 previous convictions and 19 prison sentences.
In 2023, he was sentenced to 12 months’ prison after leading police on a slow-speed chase from Arrowtown to Shotover Country while high on meth.
Counsel Kieran Tohill said Scott’s physical appearance had changed so much since their last meeting he did not recognise him in the courthouse that morning, indicating he had turned a corner in his drug and alcohol use.
From a starting point of 22 months’ imprisonment he had originally intended to ask for a final sentence of home detention, but was now seeking a period of intensive supervision to support the defendant’s rehabilitation.
That would also enable him to continue caring for his terminally ill mother in her home, Mr Tohill said.
Judge Catriona Doyle said none of the sentences imposed on the defendant so far had brought about a change in his behaviour.
He had posed a risk to the community every time he used illegal drugs or alcohol, then got behind the wheel of a car.
However, the pre-sentence report said he had begun to show a willingness to address his issues and to work with the probation service.
She had also taken into account a plea by the defendant’s mother that he not be sent to prison.
Intensive supervision would be a "tough" sentence for him because of its strict conditions and the treatment or counselling he would be required to complete, Judge Doyle said.
Any breach would likely result in a term of home detention instead, which would prevent him from caring for his mother.
After accounting for his guilty plea and time already spent in custody or on electronically-monitored bail, she sentenced Scott to 18 months’ intensive supervision, which she would monitor for the first 12 months.
She would not impose a further driving disqualification because he was already banned from driving until March next year.
