A woman with a serious drink drive problem wept as it dawned on her that options other than prison had run out.
Emily Eggers, a disqualified driver serving a sentence of intensive supervision for drinking and driving while six times the limit, was then stopped on Waimea Rd and found driving at nearly four times the limit.
Judge Tony Snell said she was "failing miserably" at supervision, posed a serious threat to others on the road, and because a friend didn't want her serving a sentence of home detention at his place, prison was the only option.
An effort by her lawyer to adjourn sentencing was flatly refused, because of the risk she posed to the public.
“I have no doubt that if you continue this path, you will either kill yourself or someone else. It’s just a matter of time,” Judge Snell said.
Eggers wept quietly as she was sentenced in the Nelson District Court to nine months in prison, from a 12-month starting point for driving drunk on a third or subsequent time.
Her blood alcohol reading followed two of the highest breath alcohol readings Judge Snell said he had ever seen.
She was now disqualified from driving, indefinitely.
In 2018 Eggers was convicted for driving while just over five times the legal limit at 1260 mcg of alcohol per litre of breath.
On August 20 last year Eggers was caught behind the wheel while more than six times the legal limit at 1570 mcg, or four times the level at which criminal charges applied.
The legal limit for drivers aged 20 and over is 250 mcg.
Readings between 251–400 mcg might incur an infringement notice, demerit points, and a $200 fine.
Readings above 400 mcg were a criminal offence, leading to fines, disqualification, or imprisonment.
Following the August 20 offending, Eggers was granted an interlock licence which meant she was disqualified for the mandatory 28 days to get the device fitted to her car.
She was also sentenced to intensive supervision, with the option of being recalled if she was non-compliant.
Less than a month later, on the evening of September 18, she was seen driving on Waimea Rd and identified by police as a disqualified driver.
An evidential blood sample disclosed she was almost four times the legal blood alcohol limit, at 195mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.
Judge Snell said a probation report recommending cancellation of intensive supervision, to be replaced with a further sentence of intensive supervision plus community work was “quite frankly, ridiculous”.
He said it was not only “astonishing” and “grossly unrealistic”, but unfair to Eggers who clearly had an alcohol problem.
She had taken no steps to address this, and her engagement in the supervision process has been “marred with regular occurrences” of non-attendance, Judge Snell said.
He said the aggravating factors this time meant prison was justified, but Eggers was granted leave to apply for home detention if a suitable address was found.
He suggested she consider residential rehabilitation to help address her “major alcohol problem”.
