Home detention this time — just

A 46-year-old man who was jailed for nine months when he appeared before Judge NR Dawson in the Kaitaia District Court on March 21 was granted a review of sentence when he appeared before Judge Deidre Orchard in the same court last week.

Harold Murray, who was due for release from prison on May 25, was sentenced to five weeks’ home detention, to be served at Ahipara. He remained disqualified from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence until July 2022.

Counsel Tony Shepherd told Judge Orchard that Murray had been in custody since January 10 on two counts of driving with excess alcohol and whilst disqualified, both for the third or subsequent time, and one of dangerous driving.

In his sentencing notes Judge Dawson said Murray had been stopped by police at Awanui at 7.42am on October 24 last year. He admitted he was disqualified, and recorded an alcohol level of 1092 micrograms per litre of breath (almost four-and-a-half times the legal limit).

On December 17 he crashed the quad bike he was riding on Fairburn Road but managed to right it and ride away. That evening he was involved in another single-vehicle crash, emergency services finding him lying on the road clutching a bag containing two bottles of beer and an open bottle of bourbon.

He was found to have 266mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood (equating to 1330 micrograms).

Judge Dawson told Murray his behaviour was unacceptable to the community, and “you have got to stop it. The sentence needs to be imposed to get the message home to you that if you do continue to offend in this way, then there are consequences which you are not going to enjoy . . .

“You put your own life at risk, which is foolish, but no one has the right to put other people at risk (of) their lives and safety, and you did that twice.”

If Murray continued to offend like this the sentences would get “worse,” he added.

“You need to wake up to that fact, because if you come back to court again your next stretch in prison for similar offending would be much longer than what you have got today.”

He granted Murray leave to apply for home detention from prison, but gave him no assurances that an application would be successful.

Judge Orchard told Murray last week that she would grant the sentence review, and impose home detention, only so he could undergo “intervention” in his own and the public interest.

She warned him that if he breached the conditions of his new sentence he would be unlikely to receive a sympathetic hearing from any judge.