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A Tauranga man has been jailed after his 17th drink driving conviction - but his lawyer says he is likely to reoffend when released.
Phillip Noble, 43, has been described by police as one of the region's worst repeat drink-drivers.
In court this week he was sentenced to 18 months in jail for driving with excess breath alcohol and driving while disqualified - his sixth such charge.
Yet his lawyer, Michael Toner, told the court that the weedsprayer would reoffend unless he got severe intervention on his release from prison.
He had acted for Noble on at least a dozen of his drink driving offences and hoped he would not have to do so again.
But, as highlighted by the pre-sentence report, Mr Toner said Noble had a low level of motivation to change and there was a high likelihood he would reoffend.
"These are completely worrying issues as there is no secret that Mr Noble is a chronic alcoholic who has no perspective to his responsibility not to drink and drive or the consequences of his offending."
The court was told that when Noble was stopped on Papamoa Beach Rd about 8.20pm on October 2, he immediately admitted to police he was a disqualified driver.
An evidential breath alcohol test revealed a reading of 724 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath - almost double the adult legal limit of 400 micrograms.
Judge Thomas Ingram told Noble he had clearly failed to learn his lesson despite having been jailed in the past for the same offence. In August 2005 he was jailed for three months.
"In my view the community deserves protection from people like you who continue to drink and drive this number of times, and I and everyone else in the community just won't put up with it," Judge Ingram said.
He accepted that when Noble was sober he could hold down a steady job and had some sense of responsibility but clearly he had none when he drank.
"That is totally unacceptable," the judge said.
Noble has also had his licence revoked for three years and was ordered to undergo supervision for six months after his release from prison, including undertaking drug and alcohol treatment programmes.
The maximum sentence that could have been imposed was two years, though police have confirmed that Noble is likely to be released from prison in about nine months, effectively serving half his sentence.
Senior Sergeant Ian Campion, head of the Western Bay strategic traffic unit, said it was vital to get drunk drivers off the roads.
"This case indicates to me that this man is more than just a slow learner. In fact, he just hasn't learned at all and prison appears to be the only place for him."
Senior Sergeant Ed Van Den Broek, acting Bay of Plenty road policing manager, said it was one of the worst cases in the Western Bay in his experience.
"That's just a horrendous number of convictions.
"How could someone be so dumb, is beyond me. He obviously hasn't learned his lesson."
Mr Van Den Broek said drink driving was a huge problem in the Western Bay region.
Since November 1 last year, 429 people had been caught drink driving on Western Bay roadsand alcohol was also a factor in 19 per cent of all crashes in the district.
- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES
