Jail for drinkdriver with ‘appalling attitude’

‘‘I’VE been doing this for 30 years. I’ve never hurt anyone,’’ a Milton drinkdriver told police when he was pulled over.

Wayne Te Rangi Te Rauna’s first conviction was actually 27 years ago and since then he has been before the court for five similar offences.

But the experience had not prompted the 55yearold shearer to make a gushing apology.

Most offenders use their presentence interview with Probation — a report from which goes to the sentencing judge — to express their remorse.

Te Rauna refused to consent to his home being used for an electronicallymonitored sentence, leaving Judge Dominic Flatley only one option.

‘‘You expressed to the report writer you were unwilling to address your behaviour in any way, preferring to go to prison,’’ he told the Dunedin District Court yesterday.

‘‘That’s an appalling attitude, Mr Te Rauna. What you’re saying is you don’t care about the law, you don’t care about drinking and driving . . . You will, and too bad for everybody else.’’

Police spotted the defendant get into his ute outside Milton’s White Horse Inn and followed him along Union St.

The circumstances, the judge said, were ‘‘generally unremarkable’’.

That was until police activated their lights and sirens.

Te Rauna stopped but, rather than wait for the officers, he got out of the vehicle and popped into a nearby restaurant.

Initially he stood at the counter and refused to accompany police to the station.

Eventually he acquiesced. After a breath test gave a reading of 653mcg — more than twice the legal limit — he made his audacious comments about his long record of drinkdriving.

Judge Flatley said it was not just those convictions blotting his ‘‘lengthy history’’.

Despite that, he had been assessed as a low risk of reoffending and harm to others.

‘‘I’m not sure I accept that, given your history. If you continue to drink and drive you are a real risk to others because you put everyone on the road at risk,’’ the judge said.

Defence counsel Andy Belcher explained his client’s dismissive comments to Probation might have been the result of persistent pain he suffered.

He argued a prison term of three months would be sufficient.

Judge Flatley jailed Te Rauna for five months.

The defendant’s attitude to rehabilitation meant counselling postdetention had not been recommended.

But the judge disregarded that and imposed six months of conditions to run from Te Rauna’s release.

‘‘I have to try everything for the sake of everyone on the road,’’ he said.