Repeat drink driver buys e-bike in a bid to ‘minimise risk to the travelling public’

Wayne Gardner is without a car after his latest bout of driving drunk. He now rides an e-bike which is in his and other road users' best interests, the Nelson District Court heard. Photo / 123RF

Wayne Gardner’s latest bout of driving drunk was to quell an urge for cheesecake, but the trip to the supermarket didn’t go to plan.

He was caught drunk and behind the wheel twice in just over 12 hours - the second time he crashed, writing off his car.

On each occasion, he was more than four times over the limit.

His recent decision to buy an e-bike is in his and everyone else’s best interests, his lawyer believed.

Judge Richard Russell agreed, but it didn’t stop him from sentencing Gardner to maximum periods of community detention and intensive supervision and banning him from driving for the next two years.

Further tough restrictions imposed by the judge meant Gardner would risk going to prison if he drove a car with any hint of alcohol in his system for the next five years.

The events which led to Monday’s sentencing began when he was stopped by police around 3pm on August 27 while driving on State Highway 1 at Spring Creek in Marlborough.

He blew a breath alcohol reading of 1093 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath.

Gardner told police he’d had three beers and was on his way to pick up a cheesecake from the supermarket.

He was suspended from driving for 28 days.

At 5.30am the next day Gardner was back driving on SH1 near Tuamarina, the highway between Blenheim and Picton, but crossed the centreline into the southbound lane and crashed into a bank.

He was injured in the crash and airlifted to Nelson Hospital where a blood sample showed he was still well over the legal limit, with a reading of 221 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.

A drunk driver described as a menace to himself and other road users was airlifted to hospital after a crash in Marlborough last year, a little over 12 hours after he was suspended from driving after he was found four times over the legal alcohol limit.

The legal limit is 50mg per 100 ml.

Judge Russell said Gardner was not only a menace to himself but to other road users as well.

He added it was something of a miracle Gardner was standing in the court, and sheer luck no one had been coming the other way as he veered across the road.

“It was nothing short of appalling driving,” he said in sentencing Gardner, who had earlier admitted charges of driving with excess breath alcohol third or subsequent, driving with excess blood alcohol third or subsequent, driving while suspended and careless driving.

The 48-year-old already had several drink-drive convictions on his record dating back to 2006.

Judge Russell acknowledged Gardner’s underlying health issues, linked to what was described as him being a functioning alcoholic, but said they paled into insignificance next to the threat he posed to other road users.

Gardner had told police that because of his built-up tolerance to alcohol, he had not thought he was so far over the limit.

His lawyer Ian Miller said Gardner’s drinking had become so bad it was risking his health and he needed help in order to get better.

Judge Russell said the offending was serious.

“You had two very high (alcohol) levels along with a crash while you were suspended from driving.”

Miller said Gardner accepted he needed, and wanted help, and still had the support of family and friends. He was also now fully engaged with alcohol and drug services.

“He’s trying, and he’s taken some right steps but it’s going to be a long process,” Miller said.

Gardner declined to talk with NZME outside court, other than to say it had been a “long haul”.

Judge Russell considered home detention as a sentencing option but said it wasn’t appropriate because Gardner now lived in a caravan.

Gardner no longer had a vehicle in which an interlock device could be fitted, and now used an e-bike which Judge Russell noted would “hopefully minimise the risk to other members of the travelling public”.

From a starting point of two years imprisonment, and deducting credit for his early guilty plea, Gardner was then sentenced to six months community detention and 24 months intensive supervision.

He was also made subject to three-monthly judicial monitoring and banned from driving any vehicle for the next two years, after which time he could apply for a zero-alcohol licence.

That meant he would not be able to drive with any alcohol in his system for the next five years.

“If you drink and drive again you will be writing your own ticket to a prison term,” Judge Russell warned.