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A teenager has been let off a drink-driving charge because she wants to be a police officer, angering police who are looking to appeal the court decision.
The 19-year-old former private school student was discharged without conviction and fined $500 in Auckland District Court on Friday after pleading guilty to drink driving.
She was stopped at an inner-city checkpoint at 5am on a Sunday last July and returned a blood test of 41ml per 100ml - well over the 30ml limit.
However, the ex-St Kentigern's College student - who the Herald on Sunday has decided not to name - asked the court to be discharged without conviction, so she could apply to become a police recruit.
Anyone caught drinking and driving is immediately ineligible for Police College.
It is understood some police are fuming about the decision.
Senior Sergeant Craig Kitto opposed the discharge and said the "occupational barrier" was not sufficient to outweigh the gravity of the offending in the first place.
"It is submitted that the impact of a conviction of this nature is just as burdensome on other members of the public as to this defendant," he said in court documents.
"There is no guarantee that the defendant will be recruited."
But the 19-year-old's lawyer, Paul Davison QC, successfully argued for her future not to be jeopardised by one mistake.
In his submission to the court, Davison said his client had wanted a career in the police since she was 16, and had applied as a recruit and had been fitness training with police, before asking for the discharge.
However, the Herald on Sunday understands the police have sent the file to the Crown Law to ask whether Judge Cunningham's ruling on the discharge can be appealed.
