Alexandra District Court

AN orchard worker in Central Otago through the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme has been permitted to return to his native Fiji while awaiting sentencing for causing a crash near Cromwell on Monday.

When he appeared before Judge Michael Turner in the Alexandra District Court on Tuesday, Nikola Roqovui Roqovui (43), labourer, of Nevis, pleaded guilty to careless driving causing injury to two people on Cairnmuir Rd, Cromwell, on December 17.

Counsel for Roqovui, Liam Collins, said Roqovui had already been scheduled to return home to Fiji yesterday.

Roqovui had been working seven months a year in Central Otago through the RSE scheme and would not be permitted to keep doing so with a conviction, Mr Collins said.

He said Roqovui had ‘‘consumed no alcohol at all’’ before the crash but had fallen asleep at the wheel, and acknowledged it was ‘‘terrible that two people have been seriously injured’’.

But Roqovui was a respected worker in New Zealand and respected citizen in Fiji — he was a church pastor there — and would return to New Zealand for sentencing, Mr Collins said.

Judge Turner approved his travel to Fiji and remanded him until April 2 for sentencing. reserved judgement on the case, which found Terry guilty on both charges.

Terry was remanded for sentencing in the Alexandra court on February 14.