Long-haul truck driver caught drink-driving sentenced

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

A long-haul truck driver caught drink-driving has been sentenced to community work.

Judge Warren Cathcart imposed 250 hours work on Nigel Ross Williamson, 41, when he appeared in Gisborne District Court this week.

The judge also imposed a mandatory disqualification banning Williamson from driving for a year and a day, either under his normal licence or his transport service one. 

Williamson was found to be driving with a breath-alcohol level of 463 micrograms when he was routinely stopped in Taumarunui on April 27 this year.

He was driving a Straits New Zealand-owned heavy truck and trailer from Auckland to Levin.

The court was told Williamson was now living in Gisborne, having lost his job with the interisland trucking company.

The conviction was his third for drink-driving, the first being in 2005; the second in 2008.