KEY POINTS:
The grief-stricken family of a 24-year-old jogger killed by a woman drink-driver are furious she is allowed out and about for shopping and recreation while on home detention.
Lynette Carol Wescott, 44, lost control of her Holden Commodore on a bend in Tuakau, south of Auckland, on a Friday evening a year ago. She hit and killed Brendan Dance.
Dance, a Sky TV sports programming co-ordinator, was only 200m from home when he was mown down. He was training for the Auckland half-marathon.
At Pukekohe District Court, Wescott pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 months' home detention - the maximum period - and banned from driving for three years.
She served six months of her sentence only 250m from Dance's family home, which has "devastated" his mother, Beverley Callander.
Wescott recently moved from Tuakau to Pukekohe with her partner.
The Herald on Sunday understands Wescott's home detention conditions mean she can work between the hours of 7am and 7pm. On Tuesday nights she is given an extra hour to do grocery shopping.
Once a week she is given four hours of recreation time.
Callander - a teacher aide who has lost two husbands to heart attacks - was outraged to learn about the conditions.
"It's a joke," she said.
"Most people think home detention means they're imprisoned in their home with an anklet on, but that's not the case. She's allowed to basically carry on life as she normally would. She can visit her family in her recreation time or after work. Where is the penalty here?"
The family spoke with lawyers about Wescott's privileges but did not have the cash or strength to proceed.
"That judge said home detention is not an easy option. Well, I tell you the freedom she's got from killing someone is disgusting," Callander said. "The justice system in this country stinks. She took a life and her life carries on as though nothing happened."
The Herald on Sunday visited Wescott yesterday, but she declined to comment.
Darius Fagan, the area manager of community probation for the Manukau area, said if a person on home detention abided by the rules privileges could be granted - including being let out of the house.
"These absences are carefully managed and planned for and can occur for a number of reasons, including employment, attendance at rehabilitative programmes, grocery shopping, and family/domestic reasons."
People can also be granted freedom to attend church every Sunday. Usually, people on home detention who live with others are not given extra time to do grocery shopping, but each case is different, he added.
When sentenced on June 11, Wescott was given a reduced sentence by Judge John Adams because of her previously spotless record and guilty plea.
Wescott had drunk two glasses of wine that afternoon. She went to the Tuakau Hotel and drank another, and ordered a fourth glass that she didn't finish.
At 7.45pm she drove home.
Wescott was not grossly over the legal blood alcohol limit and was driving within the 100km/h speed limit, but she failed to heed a 65km/h advisory sign on the moderate bend.
Judge Adams accepted Wescott's evidence that she tried to revive Dance.
rebecca.milne@heraldonsunday.co.nz
