Offender ditches bracelet

A drink-driver sentenced to community detention skited about spending a week away from home without being noticed after he "ripped off" his monitoring bracelet.

In August, Taranaki man Tony Smith, 22, was sentenced to three months' community detention after he was convicted of driving with excess breath alcohol. The sentence is due to finish on November 27.

In late October, he removed his electronic bracelet and travelled around the North Island for a week.

When he returned on October 30, he bragged on Facebook about breaching his curfew - and getting away with it.

"Haha so i puld my hme d [bracelet] thng off and gapd it 4 aweek and i got nufn just a warning haha awsum," he wrote.

Smith told the Herald that he "just grabbed it and ripped it off" at his Okato home. He said he was "bored".

"As soon as I did it, I walked to the beach and walked 7km along it. I went into New Plymouth and the next day I hitched to Hastings for a week."

He left the monitoring bracelet at his curfew address and was caught only when he returned and police spotted him.

Smith was charged with breaching his conditions and given a warning.

Community detention is monitored by the Department of Corrections. However, it will not comment on individual cases.

Smith said he had at least 16 convictions and hoped this would be his last. He did not intend breaching his sentence again.

"Nope ... if I get another criminal conviction I'm off to jail," he said.

Smith has also been banned from driving for eight months. He wants this to be his last brush with the law.

"I was doing pretty good for a while. I stayed out of trouble for two years.

"Then I started hanging out with the wrong people and drinking again. I've got to stay out of that now, I've got to start hanging out with the right people."

Sensible Sentencing Trust spokeswoman Ruth Money expected people to be "appalled".

"Allowing this offender to abuse the privilege of community detention and simply get away with a warning is outrageous and someone should be held accountable," she said.

"How can the public feel safe when offenders can remove bracelets with no consequences?

"To remove the bracelet is bad enough but then to share the story and laugh about it via social media just shows that Smith does not respect the law."

Ms Money had a message for Smith: "This is not a joke. You should be made to work with those who have lost loved ones to drink-drivers and then perhaps you will laugh less and think more."

Offenders on community detention must remain at their address during curfew hours set by their sentencing judge.

They are fitted with an electronic ankle bracelet and tracked by radio frequency monitoring. The anklet must be worn 24 hours a day, seven days a week during their sentence.

Community detention is less restrictive than home detention, which requires offenders to stay at an approved address at all times and be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week.