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A repeat drink-driver told Judge Campbell Savage in the Timaru District Court on Tuesday that he didn’t need to go to prison to realise he had a drinking problem. (File photo)
A 67-year-old South Canterbury man cannot remember travelling more than 100 kilometres on State Highway 1, while more than three times over the legal alcohol limit, a trip which netted him his sixth drink-driving conviction.
Derek Bryan Stevenson claimed he had only consumed four stubbies of beer when he was stopped by police in Dunsandel, 40 kilometres south of Christchurch, after driving north from Temuka – a distance of about 104km.
Stevenson blew 877 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath. The infringement limit for a driver over 20 years is 250mcg with the criminal limit 400mcg.
“You had been drinking in Temuka and drove to Dunsandel, and have no memory of doing so,” Judge Campbell Savage said during his sentencing in the Timaru District Court on Tuesday.
Lawyer, John Black, said Stevenson was a man of limited means who worked about 30 hours a week in Winchester and needed transport to do so.
“The aggravating feature is he has five previous convictions, the last was in 2013, but all previously have fairly high levels,” Black said.
“He really doesn’t want to keep coming back before the court.”
Black said Stevenson did not have the capital to go out and buy an alcohol interlock licence device (AIL) and would have to pay a monthly fee.
Judge Savage said a report stated Stevenson’s attitude was that he didn’t have a drinking problem.
“If you wake up in Christchurch men’s prison tomorrow because of your drinking would that make you think that you have a problem?” the judge asked.
Stevenson replied: “I don’t have to go there to know I have got a problem.”
Judge Savage said that was “certainly a change from what is in the report”.
“I’m told by the report writer that you were amazed to get that far without remembering the journey. That’s a problem and that’s a road I drive.”
Stevenson was told the gap since his last drink-driving conviction was all that had kept him out of prison.
Stevenson was sentenced to four months community detention, six months supervision, a 28-day driving disqualification after which he can apply for an AIL and in due course a zero alcohol licence.
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