A repeat drink driver with a history of non-compliance eventually relented and agreed to a breath alcohol screening test. Photo / 123RF
A repeat drink driver with a history of non-compliance eventually relented and agreed to a breath alcohol screening test. Photo / 123RF
A repeat drink driver whose scuffle with Kaikōura police prompted a road worker to intervene has failed to convince a court he should be allowed to keep driving.
Dennis Englebert Temo argued that since he had recently got a job with a construction firm, and the fact he now lived in a remote part of Nelson and had to care for his horses, he needed to keep his licence.
He said he would lose his recently-gained job if he lost his licence.
But the Nelson District Court thought otherwise, and sentenced him on the basis it was not in the public interest not to disqualify the man it described as holding a "certain attitude to court orders".
Neither was he a "complete novice" when it came to drink-driving.
Temo was sentenced yesterday to four charges he eventually admitted, including refusing an officer's request for a blood specimen, two charges of refusing to accompany a police officer, and driving with excess breath alcohol for a third or subsequent time.
It was in Kaikōura last year that Temo, now 53, attracted police attention which led to yesterday's sentencing.
It was late at night on July 31 last year when he was seen pulling into a Kaikōura fuel station. Police noticed his vehicle was neither warranted nor registered.
He was asked to undergo an immediate breath screening test, but refused.
He was arrested when he refused to accompany police to the station, but once there, he again refused to undergo an evidential breath test, and then to supply a blood sample.
A repeat drink driver who scuffled with police in Kaikōura, prompting a road worker to intervene, has been ordered off the road for a year. Photo / Supplied
Judge Tony Zohrab suggested at yesterday's sentencing it was most likely because the level of alcohol in his system was high.
In December last year police received a complaint that Temo was seen driving off from a Kaikōura pub.
The complainant told police Temo had been drinking and appeared to be intoxicated.
Police then spotted his car several kilometres from the pub, but once Temo had spotted them he dashed up a nearby driveway and parked. He then got out and walked down the road.
When police approached him and asked him to undergo a breath screening test, he refused. He then refused to accompany police to the station, and was arrested.
An altercation began when Temo refused to put his hands behind his back, prompting him to start throwing punches at the officer.
The pair of them ended up on the ground and Temo was then pepper sprayed, but he still refused to comply.
The police summary said a member of a nearby road works crew came to help the officer and Temo was placed in handcuffs.
Once back at the police station he underwent a breath screening test and was found with 511 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath, and charged with driving with excess breath alcohol on a third or subsequent time.
He has three previous drink-drive convictions dating back to the early 1990s - even though the last one was in 2001, but two others happened within a short space of time, Judge Zohrab noted.
The judge said under the circumstances he did not believe he had the ability to invoke Temo's request for a substitute sentence instead of disqualification, but even if he did, he was not willing to do so.
He said each offence on its own was serious, it had taken until May this year for Temo to plead guilty to the charges laid last July, and he had then reoffended while on bail, and on a zero-alcohol order.
Judge Zohrab said in sentencing there were no aggravating factors, but neither were there any mitigating factors.
The judge also had issues with whether Temo was truly remorseful, and his history of drink-driving.
He said Temo's drink-driving fell in the moderate to serious category while his other offences were mid-range, which led him to hand out a sentence of nine months' supervision with special conditions, plus 100 hours' community work.
Temo was also disqualified from driving for 12 months – meaning he would have to re-sit his licence.
On the charges of refusing to accompany a police officer he was convicted and discharged.
Judge Zohrab also declined a request to defer the disqualification.
