KEY POINTS:
A 16-year-old youth has been sentenced after a fatal crash in which he drove a car despite being warned it had mechanical problems.
Two people died after the youth's Nissan Pulsar drove through a stop sign at the intersection of State Highway 27 and the Paeroa-Tahuna Rd and hit a 4x4 on March 16.
Jesse Kennerly-Williams appeared in the Morrinsville District Court this week facing charges over the crash.
Two people in Kennerly-Williams' car, front sear passenger Amy Jeanel Gardiner and the left rear passenger, Chad Arnold, died at the scene.
A third passenger in the car and a passenger in the 4x4 suffered multiple injuries.
Police said Kennerly-Williams was driving outside the conditions of his learners licence.
In a statement police also said their investigations had shown that the car had earlier been damaged by one of Kennerly-Williams' friends in a "wheelie".
Police said the friend told him that only some of the gears were working - first, third and fifth - but that fourth and reverse were not.
"Despite this Kennerly-Williams then drove 78kms, from Huntly to Glenn Murray then on towards Waihi, crashing his car at Tahuna," said a police statement.
Kennerly-Williams appeared in the Morrinsville District Court this week on two counts of dangerous driving causing death and two charges of dangerous driving causing injury.
Part of the dangerous driving charge related to knowingly driving a car knowing it was faulty.
Judge Anne McAloon sentenced him to four months community detention, 140hrs community service, $2500 reparations and disqualified him from driving for two years.
