During the pursuit the 30-year-old from Te Puke drove into oncoming traffic without lights on and continued speeding even after police spiked and deflated his tyres.
The dramatic early-morning chase on August 13 ended when police nabbed him as he tried to escape on foot.
Pui appeared in the Tauranga District Court yesterday before Judge Paul Geoghegan to be sentenced having earlier pleaded guilty to a raft of charges.
These included failing to stop for police, driving while disqualified, unlawfully possessing a pistol and knives, possession of methamphetamine for supply, refusing to undertake an evidential blood test and a breach of release conditions.
A police summary of facts said Pui failed to stop for police for about an hour after first being seen speeding, with headlights off and swerving all over Gravatt Rd in Pāpāmoa about 4.27am.
He continued to drive erratically, including on the wrong side of the road at speeds up to 130 km/hr in the 50 km/hr speed limit area, the summary said.
He kept going after police spiked his tires but was caught after he stopped on King St in Te Puke and ran off.
Police found 12.29 grams of methamphetamine and $1500 cash on him, and two knives and an unloaded cut-down, pump action shotgun in working condition in the car.
Pui refused to give a blood sample and told police the gun was to “keep himself alive” as people were trying to kill him, the summary said.
His lawyer Nicola Pointer sought a home detention sentence to be served at an Auckland rehabilitation centre, which she argued given Pui’s rehabilitative needs detailed in his cultural background and pre-sentence reports.
Fleeing driver and drug dealer Leon Pui was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court on Tuesday. Photo / NZME
Judge Geoghegan told Pui he read both reports and was “satisfied” a rehabilitative sentence of home detention was appropriate.
“You have had a difficult upbringing and I want to acknowledge that.”
Judge Geoghegan said Pui’s father died in 2022 in “circumstances that suggest his death was a homicide”.
This caused Pui “significant trauma and distress”, particularly as he was unable to attend his father’s tangi as he was in prison.
“The [cultural] report makes for very difficult reading … You have been failed by your whānau as a young person.
“People who should have provided you with love, care, security and values, instead exposing you to chaos, drugs, alcohol abuse, violence and instability.”
The judge said the report also described other offending risk factors of cultural deprivation, early engagement with the justice system, early use of drugs and alcohol and Pui’s methamphetamine addiction.
Judge Paul Geoghegan. Photo / Andrew Warner
Pui had a history of alcohol abuse, alcohol-related offending and methamphetamine offending and Judge Geoghegan said a rehabilitative sentence would be of most benefit to Pui, the people around him and the wider community.
He said he had no difficulty in accepting that from an early age Pui – a patched Mongrel Mob member for nine years – was on “an inevitable path” to criminal offending and imprisonment.
However, the judge said that did not absolve Pui from his decisions but it explained why he was in prison.
The judge said hopefully at the end of his sentence Pui could move on to “live a more constructive life”.
Judge Geoghegan said it was clear being a gang member had not improved Pui’s life or let him be the father he wanted to be.
He told Pui it was “not too late” to turn his life around.
Pui was sentenced to 10 months and two weeks of home detention, which would start on January 25 and be followed by six months of post-detention conditions.
Pui was disqualified from driving for a further two years from September 23 for failing to stop for the police and 12 months for refusing to permit a blood test.
At the end of the 3-year disqualification, Pui will need to apply for a zero alcohol interlock licence, the court heard.
Judge Geoghegan ordered the forfeiture of the $1500 and the destruction of the drugs, shotgun and knives.
Sandra Conchie is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 24 years. She mainly covers police, court and other justice stories, as well as general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional/community reporter of the year.
