Car hijacked after drinking spree

Press, 29 July 1989, Page 6

Car hijacked after drinking spree

A drunk man who took a car at knifepoint and went on a driving spree causing $23,000 of damage, was sentenced to six months community care sponsored by the Mahu Clinic, when he appeared in the High Court yesterday. Ricky Donald Scott, aged 26, was also disqualified from driving for six months, and ordered to pay reparation of $327.37 to the owner of the uninsured vehicle at $l5 a week. Scott. had earlier pleaded guilty to one charge each of kidnapping, assault with a . weapon, unlawful taking of a vehicle, driving with excess breath alcohol, dangerous driv-

ing and failing to stop. The Court was told how Scott, after a four-day drinking spree, had gone to a service station and taken a motorist and his car at knifepoint. The defendant had then driven through Linwood, going through two red lights, and involving three other cars in collisions. Defence counsel, Miss M. Lai, submitted that a custodial sentence was inappropriate, because of the defendant’s personal circumstances, and a good work record, and a “desperate alcohol problem which needs treatment.” Mrs B. Read, for the Crown, agreed that the defendant had a problem

which needed to be dealt with, “but it was a remarkable spree of offending.” Mr Justice Hardie Boys, sentencing Scott, said the question of which sentence to impose presented a real problem. The defendant was obviously caught in the vicious circle, “where more drinking was the only escape from the havoc your drinking was causing,” his Honour said. He said that because the defendant had not yet reached the point where he was a danger to the community, and because the conviction was his first involving violence of this kind, then Scott would be given a sentence of community care.