Driver in fatal crash gets two years' jail

File photo / Greg Bowker

An Auckland businessman has been jailed for two years after causing the death of a Northland man in a crash.

Alan Oliver, 55, of Waimate North, died on January 7, 2009, when the Porsche 911 Turbo in which he was a passenger missed a corner on Matauri Bay Rd and plummeted 40m down a bank.

The driver of the car, Jonathon Paul Martin, was sentenced in the Kaikohe District Court yesterday to two years' jail and ordered to pay $10,000 reparation to the victim's family.

He initially pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving causing death, but late last year changed his plea to guilty.

Mr Oliver's family asked Judge Duncan Harvey to consider ordering Martin to pay reparation instead of sending him to jail.

Jailing him two years after the event would benefit no one, and would place an unnecessary burden on taxpayers, the family said in a victim impact statement.

Judge Harvey appeared moved by the family's "remarkable" statements, but said the seriousness of the offence meant jail could not be avoided.

The Sentencing Act made provision for financial reparation, but it had to be used cautiously.

"I have to make sure that it is not perceived that a rich person can buy their way out of trouble," he said.

There were also three aggravating features the judge said he had to consider: that Martin had been drinking; he had been driving at excessive speed; he had left the scene of the crash.

It is understood Martin crawled from the wreckage, climbed back up to the road, and hitchhiked to the campground at Matauri Bay where he and his family were staying.

The prosecution had called for a 3-year jail term.

The judge also took into account that Martin was remorseful and suffering depression.

It is understood both men had been holidaying at Matauri Bay, but did not previously know each other.

Mr Oliver managed the Kaikohe branch of the ASB bank before ill-health forced him to retire.

He then took a position at Okaihau College.

According to the company's website, Martin is the managing director of Phoenix Aluminium, one of the country's biggest manufacturers of aluminium doors and windows. The Companies Office lists him and his wife, Renate, as the biggest shareholders.

- APN