Five times over the limit, driver crashed into his neighbour’s fence in a failed parking manoeuvre

A recidivist drink driver who was spotted swerving over the road crashed into a parked car and then backed into his neighbour’s fence in what he told police was a failed reverse park.

Tuan Thang Lianching pleaded guilty to a third or subsequent charge of drink-driving in Nelson District Court on Monday.

The police summary, read in court, said Lianching had five previous convictions for drink-driving, the latest in May 2021, and was subject to an alcohol interlock device.

On April 16, just before 7pm, a member of the public spotted Liangching swerving on the road as he drove up Toi Toi St in Nelson.

Turning onto a side street, Liangching crashed into a parked vehicle. Then, reversing, he crashed into a fence, causing significant damage.

Liangching then got out of his car and went into his home, a neighbouring property.

When police visited, they found Lianching had a blood alcohol level of 254 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The vehicle he was driving, his wife’s, did not have an interlock device installed.

He told police he’d drunk three bottles of beer, “tried to do a reverse park and couldn’t make it and crashed his car”, the summary said.

Judge Richard Russell said Lianching had five previous convictions, the last three since 2019.

Although he had told the court he had no access to a car, his wife had a vehicle, the court heard.

Via an interpreter, Judge Russell told Lianching that it was imperative he that stay off the road until his sentencing on October 26.

“I’m telling the police, if they find him driving a car between now and the sentencing date, he will be arrested and is probably likely to then be in custody until his sentencing,” Judge Russell said.

“I’m concerned about this man being on the road. He has an uncontrolled alcohol problem, he can’t drive a motor vehicle … I have a duty to protect the community.”