Caught twice drink-driving in one night

Getting behind the wheel while extremely drunk twice on one night earned Hamilton man Andrew Pohutuhutu a nine-month stay behind bars.

Pohutuhutu, 50, was sentenced in the Hamilton District Court on Friday after pleading guilty to two charges of driving with excess breath alcohol, one of driving while disqualified and one of giving false details to a police officer.

His counsel Joe Hamblett said it was possible Pohutuhutu’s drink was spiked at a party in Te Kuiti, potentially affecting his judgment, before he made the first of two fateful decisions to drive – a claim which held little sway with sentencing judge Simon Menzies.

It was around 6pm on March 17 this year when a passing patrol car found Pohutuhutu on a street in Te Kuiti, seated in his car, which was stopped with the engine running in the middle of the road.

He exhibited signs of intoxication, so he was tested. He returned a reading of 1099 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath, well above the legal driving limit of 250 micrograms. He was immediately suspended from driving for 28 days and his keys were confiscated.

Yet three hours later, at 9.18pm, he was stopped by police while driving the same car in a street in Otorohanga. This time he blew 993 micrograms and also gave his arresting officers false details about who he was.

‘‘You told the police you thought you would chance your luck and drive home to Hamilton,’’ the judge observed.

It turned out to be Pohutuhutu’s seventh and eighth drink-drive convictions.

Hamblett said his client believed someone had put a pill in his drink, which had affected his thought patterns.

‘‘He has a bad history, but in the last 20 years he has amended his ways. Perhaps your honour could extend him some leniency, given that it is 20 years since his last offending of this nature.’’

While it was not known how Pohutuhutu managed to drive his own car again later that evening, he maintained the police had returned his car keys to him.

Judge Menzies was not impressed by the drink-spiking allegation.

‘‘What evidence do you have that even happened,’’ he asked Hamblett.

A pre-sentence report had recommended a sentence of supervision, community detention and community work.

‘‘I have difficulties with that recommendation,’’ the judge said, ruling that prison was the most appropriate penalty for his repeated and ‘‘potentially extremely dangerous’’ offending.

‘‘You said you suspected your drinks had been tampered with at some point. I cannot attach any particular weight to the suggestion your drink might have been spiked. Your judgment would have been affected in any event by the sheer volume of alcohol.’’

If anything, the drinktampering claims were an allegation of diminished responsibility for his offending.

Pohutuhutu had a prolonged history of offending involving alcohol and cars and he had been imprisoned twice.

From a start point of 11 months in prison, the judge added one month to reflect his other charges, and then subtracted three months in recognition of his guilty pleas.

Converting the sentence to one of home detention was not appropriate in this case, he said.

Pohutuhutu was also disqualified for 18 months.