An Invercargill law student who stood to lose funding of $20,000 and prospective employment from a philanthropic lawyer was granted a discharge without conviction in the Invercargill District Court yesterday.
The 23-year-old appeared before community magistrate Simon Heale seeking a discharge on the charge of driving with an excess blood alcohol reading of 146mg in Invercargill on July 9.
Her counsel, Kate McHugh, told the court how her client had left school and worked at a law firm, making her way from office junior to law clerk. It was while working at the firm that a lawyer had encouraged her to study law at the University of Otago which she began this year.
It was a lawyer from another firm who had assisted her financially to the tune of $5000 this year, with the expectation of sponsoring the student another $15,000 for the next three years.
However, if a conviction was given, the funding was likely to be in jeopardy as well as an employment opportunity offered by the benefactor, Ms McHugh said.
Other consequences of a conviction would be difficulty in gaining admission to the bar and future employment prospects.
Mr Heale said under the circumstances described in Ms McHugh’s submissions, the threshold for a discharge without conviction had been reached.
"The consequences are significant and collectively out of all proportion to the gravity of what has occurred," Mr Heale said.
He ordered the student to pay a $600 donation to a charity and reparation of $237.94 for medical analysis costs.
