Fourth drink-driving offence

Press, 24 December 1986, Page 7

Fourth drink-driving offence

Prison terms totalling six months were imposed in the District Court yesterday on a motorist for drink-driving related offences which were his fourth such in just over 3y 2 years.

The defendant, Timothy John Roberts, aged 19, unemployed, also faces a possible indeterminate driving ban, or at least until March 1, 1989. Roberts appeared for sentence before Judge Frampton on five charges brought by the Ministry of Transport. The Judge said when imposing sentence that Roberts’ manner of driv-

ing, in which he rolled his station waggon while turning, then drove on until he crashed into the boundary fence of a residential property was extremely dangerous to other road users.

He could have severely injured or killed others if he had had an accident with another car, cyclist or pedestrian. On a charge of driving while disqualified, Roberts was jailed for six months and his licence disqualification was extended by a year, to March 1, 1989. He received concurrent terms of three months

imprisonment for refusing to accompany a traffic officer, refusing to supply a specimen of blood, and resisting arrest. On a charge of careless use of his vehicle he was convicted and discharged. On the charges of refusing to supply a blood specimen and refusing to accompany a traffic officer, the Judge directed that Roberts attend an alcohol assessment centre, and that he be disqualified from obtaining a driving licence until the Secretary of Transport directs that he may reapply for a licence. Defence counsel, Mr A.

N. D. Garrett, had sought a sentence of periodic detention for the offences.

The Judge said the offences were the fourth occasion in just over 3y 2 years that Roberts had appeared on drink-related driving offences.

He said there seemed to be an anomaly in provisions of the Transport Act in relation to public safety, in that drinkrelated offences provided a maximum of only three months imprisonment, while a second offence of driving while disqualified provided for up to five years imprisonment.