Whangārei driver's plan to evade checkpoint backfires when police tow his abandoned van

A driver who tried to evade a police alcohol checkpoint by parking his vehicle and running away was foiled when police had it towed, forcing him to present himself to claim it back. Photo / NZME

A driver's attempt to avoid an alcohol checkpoint by parking his van and running away, backfired when police impounded it.

Dion Aitchison-Gregory, 25, a Whangārei builder, fled into bush when he spotted the checkpoint on Whangārei Heads Rd, at McLeod's Bay, about 6.45pm on August 12 last year.

Officers at the checkpoint saw someone running off but could not get them to stop and were unable to find the person.

Aitchison-Gregory needed his van for work so returned the next day to where he left it, but it was gone.

Police had towed and impounded it.

Aitchison-Gregory hatched a plan to get it back without risking being charged for anything by falsely reporting the van was stolen and that it was the thief who fled the checkpoint.

When questioned about his complaint, he stuck to the lie.

But "police didn't believe you from the get-go," Judge John McDonald told Aitchison-Gregory at his sentencing in Whangārei District Court.

Aitchison-Gregory was initially charged with perverting justice – a serious, Crown-scheduled offence for which he would have been imprisoned, the judge said.

However, the charge was eventually reduced to one of giving a false statement, to which Aitchison-Gregory pleaded guilty. He also pleaded guilty to charges of failing to stop for the checkpoint and possessing cannabis - one gram police found when they searched the impounded van.

For making the false statement, Aitchison-Gregory was sentenced to four months of community detention and nine months of supervision.

He was fined $350 for failing to stop and $150 for the cannabis offence.

Judge McDonald decided against imposing a driving disqualification, which was discretionary.

In support of Aitchison-Gregory, counsel John Riley said the offending was victim-less. Aitchison-Gregory was otherwise of good character - a young man with his own business who employed others.

He pleaded guilty as soon as the Crown reduced the charge, was remorseful, and ashamed of having let himself and his family down.

Calculating the sentence, the judge noted there was no guideline judgement for this unusual type of crime.

However, he said that based on other relevant cases, a sentence starting point of between five and six months' imprisonment was appropriate. He gave a 20 per cent discount for Aitchison-Gregory's guilty pleas.

There was no discount for remorse. In his view, Aitchison-Gregory was only remorseful for himself – not for having wasted police time.

The judge said a pre-sentence report was generally favourable but he noted Aitchison-Gregory's comment to the writer that he would not do home detention only community detention.

Aitchison-Gregory needed to understand that comment could have seen him jailed – the only alternative to home detention if that had been the sentence the court found fitting.

At the time of this offending, Aitchison-Gregory was subject to alcohol-interlock driver's licence provisions after being earlier convicted of drink-driving.