KEY POINTS:
The father of a woman left brain-damaged after a drink-driver crashed into her head-on is "seething with anger" that the former policeman may escape going to jail.
Robert Wells' daughter Michelle Davies, 38, was in a coma for weeks after the crash.
Mr Wells says the driver who hit her - Jason Peters, who had previous drink-driving convictions - probably would not be jailed.
The judge has indicated he is likely to serve home detention.
Peters had been duck-shooting with friends on May 12, 2006, when he crossed the centre line near Maramarua and struck a car containing Mrs Davies, her husband, Greg, and their daughter, Gemma. Mr Davies and Gemma were only slightly hurt.
Peters left the scene and was found about 900m away by the police Eagle helicopter.
He has pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing injury and will be sentenced in the Auckland District Court next Wednesday.
Mr Wells said he had been demanding answers from Crown lawyers on why they suggested a starting point of between two and three years' jail.
"The maximum penalty is five years' jail but they never go anywhere near the maximum ... It's certainly not a deterrent and a sentence should reflect the seriousness of the offence."
His feelings had ranged from being upset to seething with anger since he heard the sentence indication in July.
Because Peters pleaded guilty and had offered reparation of $25,000 and an apology, Judge Anne Kiernan indicated she would sentence him to 12 months' or less home detention.
She said a jail term of two years or less would equate essentially to that.
This was because prisoners were eligible for parole after serving 50 per cent of their sentence.
Judge Kiernan said aggravating factors were that Peters was over the drink-driving limit, and the effect on the victims.
Mr Wells said the letter of apology was written only because Peters knew it would look good in court and came after almost two years of silence from him.
"The mitigating factors should be seen for what they are ... As far as my family are concerned it's like we're becoming victims all over again. It's a slap in the face."
He had been told by the Crown that a starting point was reached after comparing the case to similar cases and what sentences they attracted.
Mr Wells said he researched some of these cases and it was "disgraceful" to see what some offenders had got.
He felt the damage the crash had done to his family was not being seen in the same way as the mitigating factors were.
He told the Weekend Herald yesterday how he and wife Madeline sat at Mrs Davies' hospital bed and listened to the machines beeping and then stopping, before they started again.
"We didn't know if that meant she was going to die or not - it was dreadful."
More than once doctors told them she would die and Mr Davies had to sit their then 6-year-old child down and tell her mummy wasn't coming home.
"She [Mrs Davies] has been permanently injured physically and we don't know if she will fully recover from her brain damage."
Mr Wells hopes to be allowed to read out a victim impact statement on Wednesday and says he will not stop until he has done everything he can to bring the issue to the attention of "decent New Zealanders who need to send this sort of thing back at the judge and say, 'How dare you give us this'."
