Hunger for a burger has landed Luke Gerrard with a two-week jail sentence.
The 26-year-old, who was sentenced to five-months' home detention in the Rotorua District Court on June 18, was back in court yesterday before Judge Lindsay Moore and admitted breaching his sentence and damaging his monitoring anklet.
Prosecuting, Sergeant Malcolm
Lochrie told the court that about 6.30pm on Thursday, October 1, Gerrard was at drinking pre-mixed bourbon and cola drinks and was drunk.
Gerrard asked his partner to go to the shops to buy food to make him a burger for his evening meal, but when she refused Gerrard "ripped" his home detention bracelet off, breaking its strap.
"He told her he was going to do it himself," Mr Lochrie the court.
Police found Gerrard walking along Old Taupo Rd about 5km away from his address and nowhere near his local shops.
Defence lawyer Tim Barclay said it was a serious breach but this was the first time Gerrard had breached his sentence conditions. "He is remorseful," Mr Barclay said.
Probation officer Wiremu Te Are told the court Gerrard was "frustrated at not having a job and [not] being able to support his family".
"He said he had screwed everything up terribly by running from his problems. He is willing to pay for any damage to the equipment," Mr Te Are said.
The probation officer recommended the court step back from a jail sentence and give Gerrard a term of community work.
But Judge Moore said too many prisoners were choosing to drink alcohol and breach their home detention conditions.
"We are having far too much trouble at the moment with people on home detention hitting the bottle and breaching.
"I can't see any way out of dealing with it, short of imprisonment. Someone in your situation should not be hitting the booze," he said.
Judge Moore sentenced Gerrard to two weeks in jail.
