Sentencing on hold for house-crashing drink-driver

The Tindall Road house where a woman was seriously injured when drink-driver Alec Thomson lost control of his vehicle and crashed off the road and through a kitchen wall. Photo supplied.

Sentencing has been postponed for a drink-driver who seriously injured a woman when he ploughed into a house while trying to evade police.

Alec Thoreson Thomson, 37, turned up at Gisborne District Court as scheduled on Tuesday for his sentencing but faced two new charges accumulated after further drink-driving complicated matters.

Visiting judge Tony Couch said the case would need to be adjourned for updated submissions from police and defence counsel Vicki Thorpe.

A probation service recommendation for a sentence of supervision was totally inappropriate, the judge said. It would need to be revisited.

For offending of this type, imprisonment had to be the starting point and no community-based sentence would suffice.

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He apologised for the inconvenience to people who had attended court on behalf of the victim and further remanded Thomson on bail for sentence on March 20.

Thomson pleaded guilty to the two new charges against him, which arose last November — driving contrary to an alcohol interlock order and drink-driving for a ninth time.

He had been on bail awaiting sentence for the incident in which he injured the woman, which happened near the intersection of Tyndall and Ida roads at about 8.45pm on January 4, 2022.

Intoxicated and trying to evade police after trespassing at his partner’s house, Thomson lost control of his Nissan Elgrand car and smashed into a house.

The woman was sitting at a kitchen table and was struck by the vehicle after it crashed through an exterior wall.

She had to be put into an induced coma and underwent four surgeries at Waikato Hospital.

For that incident, Thomson pleaded guilty in July this year to charges of wilful trespass, failing to stop for police and drink-driving for a third or subsequent time, causing injury.

Police have signalled they want Thomson jailed.

Substantial reparations were being sought via the criminal court and were likely also to be pursued by the house insurer through the civil jurisdiction.