160km/h mum gets a limited licence

A mother who was disqualified from driving after being caught travelling at more than 160kmh has been granted a limited licence so her children don’t suffer.

Inglewood mother Zoe Stanway appeared in the New Plymouth District Court on Friday to make the application before Judge Chris Sygrove.

In March the 32-year-old was disqualified from driving for six months and fined $500 after she was caught doing 161 kilometres an hour on State Highway Three near Bell Block.

Stanway, who has since been having to pay to send her children to school in a taxi, pleaded guilty to a charge of driving at a dangerous speed.

On Friday her lawyer, Kylie Pascoe, argued the threshold for hardship had been reached and urged Sygrove to grant the limited licence.

Pascoe said Stanway’s husband was away a significant amount of time and she was the sole care giver to the children, who needed to get to classes and attend afterschool activities.

There was no public transport option available for Stanway to get her kids to school, which was a legislative requirement, and she had made enquiries at the school but discovered there were no parents in the area who could help.

‘‘The children must go to school,’’ Pascoe said. ‘‘It is also part of her role as a parent to participate in these activities.’’

Stanway also had nobody to call upon if she needed to take her young daughter to hospital.

Pascoe said at the time of Stanway’s offending she was the sober driver and there were no children in the car.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Craig Jones said police were in no position to support or oppose the application as there was no set standard for the bar of hardship.

Sygrove said it was an unusual application.

However he accepted there would be hardship to the children and granted Stanway the special licence.