For aggravated drink-driving and breaching his alcohol-interlock licence, Sonny Duane Haami, 57, was sentenced in the Gore District Court yesterday to five months’ home detention.
When asked by Judge Russell Walker how he travelled to court that day, Haami gestured to his friend at the back of the court and said he had decided it was now "better to have a driver".
The court heard that the man had been drinking with friends on the night of January 18 and was caught driving home on a scooter, in Railway Esplanade Rd, Gore, without a court ordered alcohol-interlock device installed.
The defendant had a breath-alcohol level of 558mcg and told police he knew he should not have been drinking.
Judge Walker said he gave the man’s explanation, which was not said in court, "little weight".
"You knew that you were drinking alcohol, and you knew that you shouldn’t have driven," he said.
The court also heard the 57-year-old had seven previous drink-driving convictions going back 11 years and before that a criminal history going back a further 30 years.
The judge said four of the more recent convictions were for "fairly high" blood-alcohol readings and the man had even spent time in prison for similar offences.
He also said the defendant had been convicted of breaching an alcohol-interlock licence in 2020.
The man said he had taken up sobriety and engaged with drug and alcohol counselling.
A report before the court put him at a medium risk of reoffending and of harming others.
The judge sentenced Haami to five months’ home detention and he was disqualified for 28 days, after which he could apply for an alcohol-interlock and zero-alcohol licence.
