Rotorua court case: Patience Pari sentenced for driving into mum and kids and assaulting police

Patience Pari appearing in the Rotorua District Court. Photo / Andrew Warner

A woman who smashed her car into two others - including one containing a mum and her three children - has told a court she will never do that again.

Patience Tina Maree Pari is a month off graduating from a residential rehabilitation course to deal with her substance abuse issues and her actions have impressed a Rotorua District Court judge.

So much so, Pari will not face any further custodial penalty for her offending on July 25 last year.

Pari appeared in the Rotorua District Court on Friday for sentencing after previously pleading guilty to two charges of dangerous driving causing injury, and one each of refusing a police request to give blood, resisting police and aggravated assault.

Pari crashed into Rotorua nurse Annemarie Gallagher’s car as she was driving home after picking her children up from school. Pari then crashed into another car containing three men on Devon St before running from her car and having a physical fight with a police officer who tried to stop her.

She refused to give a blood sample to police but alcohol was found inside her car.

Pari’s sentencing follows several delays in trying to find suitable home detention addresses and trying to get into a rehabilitation facility.

During her remand, she spent three months in police custody.

Her sentencing was delayed pending the outcome of her rehabilitation and Judge Maree MacKenzie said yesterday she was impressed with a report on how Pari was doing and as a result would not impose a prison or home detention sentence.

Judge MacKenzie said Pari’s cultural report indicated she had been through significant personal trauma which shed light on why she would turn to substances.

She ordered Pari to pay $500 reparation, disqualified her from driving for 12 months and ordered her to be the subject of 12 months’ intensive supervision.

“If you are doing well, we will not see each other again.”

Judge MacKenzie said she had confidence in Pari.

Pari expressed her remorse in court for her actions, saying she was not in a “safe” place at the time.

“I will never do this again.”

Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.