Young drivers still drinking

STOP PLEASE: An alcohol checkpoint.

The message doesn't seem to be getting through to young drivers that drinking alcohol and driving is not acceptable and is an extremely dangerous practice.

Last week two youth drivers under the age of 20, were convicted of drink driving - one caught the day after he had been drinking, the other while going for food.

Mapu Tito Rangi Wihone, 17, and Jacob Morgan Scott, 19, both appeared before Judge Chris Tuohy separately in the Masterton District Court recently, pleading guilty to a charge of excess breath alcohol for an under-20 driver.

Wihone, a Featherston shed-hand, was stopped by police on Jellicoe St, Martinborough about 2.30pm on Sunday, August 25 and blew a reading of 230mcg of alcohol per litre per breath.

The limit for an under-20 driver is zero.

Jacob Morgan Scott, 19, of Masterton, was stopped during a routine alcohol check on Chapel St about 2am on Saturday, September 7, returning an alcohol reading of 213mcg per litre of breath.

Both young men told police they had been drinking alcohol the night before.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Garry Wilson told the court Wihone explained to police when he was stopped he had been drinking the night before and didn't think he was still over the limit.

Defence lawyer Virginia Pearson told the court Wihone cared for a 2-year-old baby so was not available to do community work.

Judge Tuohy fined him $200 plus $130 court costs and also disqualified him from driving for three months.

Scott's lawyer, Louise Elder, said he had been at a friend's drinking and drove to the local takeaway to buy something to eat.

He was stopped by police at a checkpoint close to his destination.

"He had not had very much to drink ... this was an oversight," she said.

Scott lived rurally and would find it difficult getting to his job without his driver's licence, Ms Elder told the court.

"He will have to bike to work for the next three months."

Judge Tuohy also fined Scott $200 and $130 court costs and disqualified him from driving for three months.

Meanwhile, another young driver, Roy Samuel Booth, 24, has admitted to a charge of driving dangerously and his third or subsequent charge of driving while disqualified.

Mr Wilson told the court on November 12 last year Booth was disqualified from driving for 18 months but on August 13 a police patrol recorded him on radar driving on Manaia Rd at a speed of 169km/h and stopped him.

He told police "he had just got his partner's car going and was test driving it", Mr Wilson said.

Judge Tuohy convicted Booth on the charges and defence lawyer Frank Minehan asked for a pre-sentenced report before his client was sentenced.

Mr Wilson requested Booth be barred from owning or having and interest in a vehicle.

Judge Tuohy remanded him on bail ordering he not drive and for a pre-sentence report including a home detention and community detention appendix for sentencing on November 11.

"He is a danger on the road. If caught driving on bail he will be held in custody ... imprisonment is a possibility," he said.