Drunk bus driver sentence bid rejected

File photo / Bay of Plenty Times

A Hawke's Bay bus driver caught driving at nearly four times the legal alcohol limit with 11 passengers aboard has had his bid to reduce his three year driving disqualification rejected.

Carl Ross Hughes, 50, was jailed for a year and disqualified from driving for three years after pleading guilty in Hastings District Court in June to dangerous driving and driving with excess blood alcohol.

Hughes tailgated other vehicles, crossed the centre line, and dangerously overtook a motorhome while driving a GoBus bus between Hastings and Napier in January.

Hughes, who had drink driving convictions in 1983 and 2003 prior to this year's conviction, did not appeal his jail sentence but did appeal the length of his disqualification.

His lawyer Matthew Phelps told the High Court such a disqualification from driving in the public transport arena could not have been criticised.

But he said the disqualification from holding or obtaining a driver's licence should only have been 18 months to two years, especially considering he was imprisoned for a year.

Justice Paul Heath noted that along with the fact it was his third drink driving conviction, Hughes' blood alcohol reading on this occasion was more than 3-1/2 times the legal limit.

He said someone facing a third drink-driving conviction must by law be disqualified from driving for more than a year, and that given this and the level of intoxication, it was difficult to see how a three year disqualification could be seen as clearly excessive.

However, Justice Heath agreed with crown submissions that Hughes should by law have been handed a sentence disqualifying him from driving a vehicle in the public transport arena, which had not been done at the District Court sentencing, and thus allowed the appeal to take this into account.

He therefore replaced the previous concurrent sentences on the two charges of three years' disqualification from having a drivers' licence with sentences on both charges of both three years' disqualification and a three year disqualification from driving a vehicle in a transport service.

As all sentences are to be served concurrently, Hughes is practically in the same position as before of effectively being unable to drive for three years.

When pulled over, Hughes told police he had been at a funeral and had had "bugger all" to drink, but later returned a blood test showing 293mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood - the limit is 80mg.

He was subsequently dismissed by his employer.

- NZPA