Drink-driver argues jail term was too long
A woman drink-driver is arguing that her two-year six-month jail sentence was too long for a crash that shoved two pedestrians over a rocky bank in Redcliffs.
Counsel for Sarah Jane Arrow, 45, appealed her case before Justice Gerald Nation in the High Court at Christchurch, two-and-a-half months after her jailing.
Justice Nation reserved his decision after hearing submissions from Kirsten Gray for Arrow, and Donald Matthews for the Crown.
Arrow lost control of her car on Main Road Redcliffs, on March 25, and veered off into pedestrians, knocking two of them down a 2m bank onto rocks below. One received bruises and scratches but the other, Ben Appleton, suffered extensive injuries requiring ongoing treatment and surgery.
Arrow was found to have a high breath-alcohol – 1009mcg of alcohol to a litre of breath. The legal limit is 250mcg.
Miss Gray today argument that District Court Judge Stephen O’Driscoll had adopted a starting point for the sentencing that was too high – double-counting one of the aggravating factors – and did not give enough weight to the mitigating factors.
She argued that the judge had added too much on for the fact that Arrow had been on a zero-alcohol licence at the time. He appeared to add six months onto the sentence, while the maximum penalty for that offence is only three months.
At the time of the offending, Arrow had been unwell and isolated, and had been using alcohol as a crutch. Her marriage had broken up and she had attempted to take her own life.
The sentencing session was told that when her husband had moved out she had been told she would not see her children again.
Miss Gray said that even taking her previous convictions into account – they include three drink-driving convictions, but one is nearly 20 years old – the starting point of three-and-a-half years was not warranted.
Arrow accepted the physical and emotional damage she had caused to the young man who had been badly injured, and the $2500 emotional reparations ordered by the court had now been paid.
Mr Matthews said it was a bad case and the two-and-a-half year sentence was well with range available to Judge O’Driscoll. It was Arrow’s third similar offence within five years and in 2013 her conviction showed she had been driving with an extremely high level of 1352mcg.
He said the sentencing notes showed the judge had not double-counted but had uplifted the starting sentence for a number of factors, and he urged that the appeal be dismissed.
Arrow, from Sumner had admitted charges of causing injury to the main victim when she was drink-driving, and breaching the terms of a zero-alcohol licence. At the time of her sentencing she was assessed as being a high risk of reoffending and causing harm to others.
Category: Focus
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
Connect
Connect with us via: