Crash drinkdriver leaves calling card
Number plate left behind after fence driven through
IT did not take much sleuthing to track down the driver who smashed through a Mosgiel couple’s fence.
Phillips James Shead (23) left behind the car’s exhaust and bumper, complete with number plate.
It did not help his cause when police saw the battered vehicle on the fiveminute drive to Shead’s brother’s home in Mosgiel.
Despite the overwhelming evidence, the defendant denied crashing through any fences and said the damage to the vehicle had occurred when it was parked and unattended.
He later pleaded guilty in the Dunedin District Court to drinkdriving, dangerous driving and failing to stop at the scene of an accident.
At his sentencing this week, the court heard how Shead had been drinking heavily at his brother’s house in October last year and left at 2am, taking his sibling’s Holden Commodore.
Shortly afterwards, he ‘‘accelerated hard’’ while heading east down Perth St.
Shead travelled well over the 50kmh limit on the narrow residential road for several hundred metres, the police summary said.
Upon approaching a tight righthand bend, the defendant braked but lost control of the car, which skidded across a footpath and a small, grass domain.
The Holden ploughed through a fence and garden, coming to rest against the concrete foundations of Pauline and Bill Overton’s home.
‘‘He touched our wall of our bedroom. Our bed is up against that wall. He could have killed us easily,’’ Mrs Overton told the Otago Daily Times the following day.
But rather than stay to apologise, Shead immediately reversed back into Perth St and sped off.
He was stopped shortly afterwards and an alcohol breath test gave a reading of 587mcg — more than twice the legal limit.
‘‘I’m a light sleeper and heard it screaming down the road and thought ‘just another idiot’ and then we heard this almighty crash,’’ Mrs Overton said.
‘‘He made a heck of a mess.’’ Judge Kevin Phillips sentenced Shead to 140 hours’ community work and ordered him to pay $4359 to cover the damage caused.
The money would come out of his benefit, the court heard.