Drunk driving Mum gets home detention

File photo / Supplied.

A Northland mother has been sentenced to 12 months home detention for drunk and careless driving causing the death of a 29-year-old father of two.

Zoey Rawinia Wineera, 23, appeared in Whangarei District Court for sentence today after earlier pleading guilty to careless use of a motor vehicle causing death and drunk driving causing death.

Wineera was also found guilty on a charge of without reasonable excuse failed to ascertain injury after she ran over Sheridan Snowden near Mokau, 45km north of Whangarei, on October 11 last year.

The pair had been at the same barbecue earlier that evening.

Mr Snowden did not want to drink and drive so called his partner to pick him up. He sat, or lay on the road waiting for his lift when the car Wineera was driving ran over him, killing him almost instantly.

Judge Thomas Everitt sentenced Wineera to 12 months jail, then converted it to home detention, saying under the circumstances of the unusual case it was an appropriate sentence.

- NZPA