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Heavy duty joyride lands teen in court
Timothy Thomas Jack?s drunken, heavy duty joyride in a front-end loader has landed the teenager in court and probably cost him his licence for a long period.
His two previous drink-driving convictions ? one of them at the lower under-20 level ? mean he is now disqualified for 11 months, and also cannot get his licence back until the Director of Land Transport removes the disqualification.
Jack was 19 and having trouble reducing his alcohol consumption, Judge Alistair Garland was told at a Christchurch District Court sitting at the Nga Hau e Wha marae today.
He pleaded guilty to charges of drink-driving and unlawfully taking a vehicle, a $15,000 Caterpillar front-end loader that he and his mates found parked on Queenspark Drive along with other heavy construction vehicles.
Jack has done a training course to drive heavy vehicles including trucks and a digger, defence counsel Gil Ferguson told the court. He now needed to get his licence to drive them.
?This young man realises it was a combination of over-use of alcohol, and bravado,? she said.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Paul Brocas said the incident happened at 2.30am on October 8, when Jack started the loader and drove it for 2.5km through the suburb of Parklands while his mates cheered him on, before abandoning it in Inwoods Road.
He was tracked and caught by a police dog, and told police he ?just wanted a bit of fun?.
When the police tested him, he had 671mcg of alcohol to a litre of breath. The legal limit for an adult (over 20) is 400mcg.
Judge Garland said it may have been fun for him but it was not fun for the people he inconvenienced.
He imposed 150 hours of community work, supervision for nine months to attend assessment and counselling for drug and alcohol issues, and the disqualification.
