Jail for fifth drink-driving charge

A woman who refused to have a blood test when she was suspected of drink-driving while on bail for a breath-alcohol offence has been jailed for nine months.

The charge of refusing to give a blood specimen amounts to a fifth drink-driving conviction for 50-year-old Christine Anne Greenwood.

"It is sad that at the age of 50 you are facing the prospect of imprisonment for offending of this kind," Christchurch District Court Judge Philip Moran said at Greenwood's sentencing.

She had pleaded guilty to driving with a breath-alcohol level of 949 micrograms of alcohol to a litre of breath in Fendalton Rd, refusing to give blood at a police stop four months later, possession of cannabis and breach of her bail. The drink-driving legal limit is 400mcg.

Defence counsel Bridget Murphy said a community-based sentence had originally been recommended but other offences had accumulated since then and Greenwood now accepted that imprisonment would be imposed.

"She has indicated to me that she thinks some rehabilitative sentence would be of benefit to her, given her history of drug and alcohol use," she said.

Judge Moran said Greenwood had defended the charge of refusing to give the blood specimen, but the judge hearing the case had rejected her defence that she was not the driver and had accepted the evidence of the police officer who saw her. She was on bail for the earlier drink-driving offence at the time.

He jailed her for nine months, with a special release condition that she undergo counselling and treatment as directed to address her drug and alcohol problems.

He disqualified her from driving indefinitely, and she will be able to apply to get her licence back, after at least a year, only when she passes an alcohol assessment.

- © Fairfax NZ News