KEY POINTS:
A teenager was today jailed for the manslaughter of a 20-year-old he hit at high speed while taking part in illegal late-night street racing.
The judge said he was sending a clear message to the boy racing fraternity.
Evidence was given in depositions at Tauranga District Court that
Jeffrey Douglas Luke was driving his high performance, turbo-charged car with unlawfully modified suspension and on the wrong side of the road when he hit Scott Finn at Mt Maunganui in May.
He had allegedly swerved to avoid a parked car.
Mr Finn, one of two starters of the street race, died instantly.
Luke, 19, of Tauranga, who had earlier pleaded guilty, was today jailed for 20 months and denied home detention.
He was also disqualified from driving for four years when he was sentenced in the High Court at Rotorua by Justice Ronald Young.
Luke and a 16-year-old co-accused, driving another car, reached speeds of at least 130km/h in a street with a 50km/h limit.
The 16-year-old, who has name suppression and pleaded not guilty to manslaughter, has been committed to the High Court for trial.
Despite Luke's age, clean record and remorse, Judge Young said he had decided to send a clear message to the boy racing fraternity.
Judge Young said the race involving high-powered cars was a "prescription for disaster".
He said he would be dealing with a similar case in Wellington next week where a young woman died. "How many deaths do there need to be before this stupidity stops?"
"We love you son," called Luke's sobbing mother as the clean-cut, chastened looking Tauranga teenager was led from the dock to the cells.
A crowd of visibly upset and shocked family and friends in the public gallery remained there for some time after the judge retired. Many were in tears as they comforted each other and tried to come to terms with the outcome.
Members of 20-year-old Scott Finn's family slipped away quickly after the sentencing. The court heard that they had "very magnanimously" forgiven Luke for their son's tragic death after a successful restorative justice conference. He had apologised to them directly and they had accepted his apologies.
Luke's high performance Mitsubishi Galant VR4 had been destroyed.
The judge was told by lawyer Tony Balme that the young automotive apprentice was preparing to take on an educative role to deter others from getting involved in the "boy racer" culture.
He planned to talk at schools "and other places where he can get his message out". A television documentary would reach an even wider audience.
Mr Balme sought home detention combined with community work but the judge declined that, saying the seriousness of the offence required a prison sentence.
"A young man has lost his life."
However, Justice Young said he gave Luke a substantial discount due to his youth, genuine remorse, good character, guilty plea and previous clean record.
The judge said Luke had been in Aviation Drive, a 50km/h speed limit cul de sac in an industrial area near Tauranga Airport, late at night to race his car. Scott Finn was one of two race starters.
Luke's VR4 had been recently written off the road by police due to modification to the suspension. He repaired the vehicle and had it recertified, then re-installed the illegal modification.
There was some trouble with the car's performance as he raced another driver away from the gathered crowd but that appeared to right itself. The pair then turned and raced back at speeds Luke later estimated to police at between 130 and 150km/h. He was on the wrong side of the road.
"Whatever the precise speed, it was very fast," said Justice Young.
Mr Finn was standing on the road next to a stationary car with his back to the two speeding vehicles when Luke's car struck him. He died instantly.
The judge said victim impact reports made tragic reading and detailed the deep sense of loss suffered by Mr Finn's family.
However, he accepted Luke's genuine remorse.
"Since the accident, you have done the right thing for yourself, your family and Scott Finn's family."
But Luke knew other people had been killed and injured at street race meetings and that did not stop him, Justice Young said.
Without the discount granted, a proper starting point for sentencing would have been 3-1/2 years' imprisonment.
Crown prosecutor Simon Bridges described Luke's behaviour as stupid, cavalier and foolhardy and his car as a lethal weapon.
- NZPA, NZHERALD STAFF
