Drink-driver 'runs out of rope'

Two repeat drunk drivers have been sent to jail for 18 months.

A Rotorua judge has jailed two repeat drink drivers for 18 months each - telling one that at least behind bars he couldn't kill anyone by driving drunk.

Mark Malone Toetoe, 44, and Raymond Tumarae Te Papa, 53, appeared separately in the Rotorua District Court on Monday, both having pleaded guilty to driving with excess breath alcohol. It was Toetoe's eighth drink-driving conviction and Te Papa's seventh. They were both also indefinitely disqualified from driving.

During sentencing, Toetoe told Judge Chris McGuire he was now working for the first time in 20 years.

"Without a job I have just been drinking," he said. "Now that I have got me a full-time job I feel positive with myself now."

However the judge said Toetoe had "run out of rope".

"I am really sorry if you have reached a point in your life where you are going to change ... I am just a little bit suspicious because I have heard it [before]."

Judge McGuire said Toetoe needed rehabilitation but first he had to do jail time.

"At least while you're in jail you're not going to kill somebody driving drunk."

Earlier in the morning, Te Papa had entered the dock with a packed bag.

His lawyer, Wiremu Te Are, said Te Papa knew what he was facing after he was caught driving his employer's car at more than twice the legal limit.

Mr Te Are handed up references on behalf of his client and told the judge "99 per cent" of Te Papa's life was in order.

"I wouldn't say he's a hopeless case ... he's just got a lot more work to do."

Judge McGuire said Te Papa had been given a final jail warning when he was last convicted two years ago.

"You went into this with your eyes open," he told Te Papa. "All I can do today, I'm sorry, is to make good on the final warning you were given."