Corrective training

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 11, Issue 509, 26 October 1993, Page 9

Corrective training

Peter Brian Speers, 24, unemployed of Raetihi, was sentenced to corrective training and disqualified from driving for 12 months when he appeared on several charges relating to offences which occurred on 21 September. He had pleaded guilty to: driving while disqualified; giving a false name; using a document (a driving licence) which was not his own; and removing a pair of sun-glasses from a Marton service station. In passing sentence Judge Watson said "you have effectively exhausted my patience and good will". Court heard how Speers, a disqualified driver, had been driving to Wellington when he stopped at a Marton service station and removed the sun-glasses; It was this offence which resulted in his arrest a short time later on State Highway One when he was intercepted by police who had been alerted. Only fi ve days earlier ( 1 6 September) Speers had appeared in the Ohakune District Court and been given a 'final warning' about his numerous driving-while-disqualified offences and was told that, with only 12 days to go before his then current period of disqualification, expired, no further disqualification would be imposed if he, Speers, were not to drive in those 12 days. Judge Watson told Speers that he appeared to have gone out of his way to attract attention to himself by taking the sun-glasses. As Speers was already serving the maximum period of community service (200 hours) for previous driving while disqualified convictions (5), only a period of corrective training was available as an appropriate sentence Counsel: Gary Johnson.