A man who jumped into the driver's seat of an ambulance while the crew were attending a patient and took it for a joyride has been jailed for seven months.
Anthony Troy Minto, 19, was sentenced in Nelson District Court yesterday after earlier pleading guilty to charges ofunlawfully taking a motor vehicle, dangerous driving and driving with excess breath-alcohol.
He also pleaded guilty to unrelated charges of assault and resisting police.
Defence lawyer Brett Daniell-Smith said Minto was so drunk he had not realised it was an ambulance until he was driving down the road, and he panicked, The Nelson Mail reported.
Judge Tony Zohrab said ambulance officers were attending an unconscious and unresponsive patient in Tahunanui on December 8 when Minto took the ambulance.
A second ambulance was called out to cover for the one Minto took. Judge Zohrab said that if another emergency had arisen, other people could have been at risk.
He said the ambulance officers left the vehicle with its engine running so they could take the patient to hospital quickly, and the rear doors were open.
Minto drove off and hit a retaining wall, damaging panels on the $120,000 vehicle.
He then lost control of the ambulance, which mounted a traffic island.
Minto was breath-tested and found to have a level of 1253 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath - three times the legal limit of 400mcg.
As well as being jailed, Minto was disqualified from driving for 18 months and ordered to pay $3590 reparation at $20 a week. He was granted leave to apply for home detention.
