90-day curfew for drink driver

A 60-year-old woman will be on a courtordered curfew for the next three months after she was sentenced for her third drink-driving charge.

On June 14 about 7.40pm, Jan Florence Beets was seen driving erratically along St Aubyn St in New Plymouth by members of the public, the New Plymouth District Court heard.

After officers pulled Beets over, she could hardly stand up and had difficulty keeping her balance. A subsequent breath test returned a result of 578 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath, more than twice the legal limit of 250mcg.

She admitted to police she had drunk a 750ml bottle of vodka during the day as well as taking her prescribed dose of methadone and anti-depressants. Beets previously pleaded guilty to a charge of drink-driving. Yesterday, the court heard how Beets had been convicted for drinkdriving in 1994 and 2014.

Judge Chris Sygrove was concerned about the risk she posed to the community. Given a recent, similar conviction for drink-driving, a legislative ability for the court to confiscate Beets’ car also kicked in.

Lawyer Julian Hannam asked the judge to step back from this. He said Beets had since transferred ownership of the $1500 car into her daughter’s name and he argued it would cause hardship if the car was now taken by the court.

He proposed an order which would prevent Beets from owning a motor vehicle for a year as an alternative.

Beets was sentenced to three months’ community detention, with a daily curfew between 7pm and 7am.

Along with a six-month supervision term, Beets was also disqualified from driving for one year and one day. Judge Sygrove also banned the defendant from owning a car for the next 12 months.