‘Shocking history’: Drink-driver jailed after 14th conviction

Months after knocking up his 13th drink-driving conviction, Rodney Spence chose to do it again — this time ramming into a car at high speed while his alcohol interlock device lay in the passenger footwell of his car.

Now the 54-year-old has been sentenced in the Hamilton District Court for both his 13th and 14th drinkdrive convictions, along with charges of dangerous driving and driving contrary to an interlock device.

Discussing what sort of sentence to hand down, Judge Tini Clark told Spence’s counsel, Kaleb Whyte, that his client had a “shocking history”.

Whyte agreed with the judge’s assessment.

While Spence doesn’t hold the record for having the most drinkdriving convictions — there are reports of people with more than 20 — his behaviour does raise questions about whether enough is being done to deter repeat offenders from getting back behind the wheel.

“The message clearly isn’t getting through and the deterrent is probably not high enough,” Alcohol Healthwatch executive director Andrew Galloway told NZME.

Spence was on bail on December 27 last year, after being found guilty of his 13th drink-driving charge in November, when he was again caught offending — this time after travelling along State Highway 27, at Matamata, in his Holden.

It was nearing 10am and he began closely following a car before ramming it in the back while travelling about 80km/h.

“The force was significant and caused damage to the front of Mr Spence’s vehicle and minimal damage to the victim’s car,” the judge said. He was stopped by police and returned a breath alcohol level of 851mcg (micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath).

The legal limit is 250mcg. Police also noticed Spence had his alcohol interlock device, unconnected, in the footwell of the front passenger seat.

The devices are meant to be wired into a vehicle to prevent it from starting if alcohol is detected on a driver’s breath. Spence acknowledged to police the device wasn’t connected and that he’d been drinking vodka.

He said the victim had been “playing games in the 50km/h area so I played games in the 100km/h”.

The incident happened after he stood trial in November on two charges, of which the jury found him guilty of one. That involved Spence and another person drinking in his vehicle in the carpark of the Palace Hotel in Te Aroha.

The hotel manager asked him to leave. He reluctantly agreed but after releasing the handbrake — and with the vehicle parked on an incline — his car rolled backwards into a vehicle parked behind him.

Spence argued that he did it “out of fear of the people around him” and disputed that rolling back into another car constituted driving.

The jury found otherwise. Whyte said most of his client’s convictions were historical and there was a nine-year gap before the offending began again in 2020.

“The reality here, Mr Whyte,” the judge said, “Is that Mr Spence has been a long-time drink driver and regardless of course . . . he has been consistently before the court for 35 years was my calculation.”

Whyte accepted prison was appropriate but asked the judge to allow a direction for Spence to be housed in a suitable treatment facility.

“He’s given some indication that there’s a desire to change.”

The judge agreed to jail him for 21 months.

Spence was also disqualified from driving for 18 months.

Mr Spence has been a long-time drink driver and regardless of course . . . he has been consistently before the court for 35 years.

Judge Tini Clark