Property manager gets ankle bracelet

A property manager has asked to be spared an ankle bracelet for her fifth drink-driving conviction.

Robyn Kay Tinker’s lawyer, John Holdaway, said Tinker was worried her clients would spot her ankle bracelet during property inspections.

But the 62-year-old failed to sway a judge at her sentencing on Monday and will sport the bracelet for the next three months.

Tinker admitted drink-driving after she crashed into a parked car on Muller Rd, in Blenheim, at 6.40pm on February 4. She would not let ambulance staff assess her when they found her in the driver’s seat, a police summary said.

But back at the Blenheim police station Tinker gave a blood test result of 311 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 50mg.

Holdaway said at the Blenheim District Court on Monday Tinker was ‘‘very embarrassed’’ and had already arranged addiction counselling.

A probation report recommended supervision and community work, but the report was written on the basis it was her third conviction for drink-driving, while in fact the February crash was her fifth.

Tinker worked as a property manager for a real estate company. She was also a supervisor at Barnados ‘‘until this experience’’, Holdaway said.

She needed her driver’s licence to do property inspections, and would apply for a limited licence after she was disqualified, Holdaway said.

‘‘She can do community work, and she can do an electronicallymonitored sentence, her house has been deemed suitable for that, but she prefers not to do that,’’ Holdaway said.

Judge Richard Russell said a probation report said Tinker had good support in the community, and outlined her ‘‘difficulties’’ with alcohol.

It also described her as having a low risk of reoffending or harming others.

‘‘But you are in the category of what’s considered a recidivist offender. Custodial sentences are often imposed for the number of convictions you’ve got,’’ Judge Russell said.

After giving credit for a gap since her last offending and her early guilty plea, Judge Russell sentenced her to three months’ community detention, with a curfew between 8pm and 6am. He also sentenced her to 100 hours’ community work, and nine months’ supervision, with conditions to do alcohol counselling as directed by probation.

Tinker was disqualified from driving for the minimum period allowed for the charge, which was 12 months and a day.