Waikato man Connor Hopewell was sentenced to four months' home detention but warned that if he drink drives again, he'll be going to jail. Photo / 123RF
Waikato man Connor Hopewell was sentenced to four months' home detention but warned that if he drink drives again, he'll be going to jail. Photo / 123RF
A 20-year-old man may have only had his licence for a few years but he has already been caught drink driving five times.
While Connor Mark Hopewell was discharged without conviction on the first two occasions, he went on to repeat the act three times, including while on bail.
The fact Hopewell had avoided conviction twice astounded Judge Noel Cocurullo.
“I can’t believe he has two section 106s [the law relevant to the discharges] for drink driving,” the judge said in the Hamilton District Court.
The circumstances of the first of his latest three drink-driving incidents began in Matamata, around 11.45pm on November 29 last year.
Hopewell did a nine-second burnout along the main street, Broadway, before driving on to the footpath outside Subway and towards Redoubt Bar, where people were sitting on the footpath, “at speed”.
His car crashed into a small drainpipe just before the bar, and he then drove off the footpath and back on to Broadway.
He was stopped by police about an hour later while leaving a property on the outskirts of the town, and returned a breath alcohol level of 888mcg per litre of breath.
When questioned, he told police he wanted to get McDonald’s “as he was hungry”.
Asked about his earlier driving, he said he was “angry and wasn’t thinking”.
The second occasion occurred around 3am on April 19, this year, when Hopewell was driving on Tristram St in Hamilton.
Connor Hopewell drove his car along the footpath towards Redoubt Bar in Matamata. Photo / Alan Gibson
He was seen by police “travelling at high speed” around the roundabout and failing to stay in his lane.
Hopewell was pulled over and officers found his speech was slurred and his movements laboured.
He was unable to complete a breath screening test despite eight attempts, but returned a blood alcohol reading of 248mg, almost five times the legal limit of 50mg.
Hopewell told police during his test attempts that “the whole point of me doing this is to waste your guys’ time, so you just put me in a cell when you get sick of me”.
The following month, he was stopped at a checkpoint on Te Ngae Rd in Rotorua and returned a breath alcohol level of 579mcg.
Hopewell told officers he’d had four or five beers before driving to help a mate who was stranded with a broken-down car.
Hopewell was also in court in relation to an assault he dished out to his brother on New Year’s Day this year.
They had been drinking at home with others when that morning, Hopewell began fighting with his brother over the volume that music was being played at.
Hopewell grabbed him by his hoodie, and the pair ended up on the ground.
He then got on top of his brother and squeezed his neck with both hands, leaving the victim unable to breathe for about 10 seconds and his face red from the pressure.
The victim managed to wriggle free and went into the hallway, but Hopewell pushed him to the ground and threw “multiple” punches, including one that left a hole in the wall.
Hopewell then dragged him by his hair and hoodie into the lounge and, during a “prolonged assault”, bit him and again strangled him, this time for about 15 seconds, and threw further punches.
Hopewell left the property and was found by police nearby.
The victim suffered extensive bruising and had trouble swallowing.
‘There are a lot of positives’
At his sentencing, the judge asked whether the siblings had repaired their relationship.
Defence lawyer Glen Prentice said a restorative justice conference didn’t happen, adding “so I’m not sure I can answer that question”.
However, Prentice said his client had “done everything he can now” in terms of rehabilitation.
Hopewell had attended Care NZ and Narcotics Anonymous, and also has a fulltime job.
“There are a lot of positives,” Prentice told the judge.
Hopewell knew that an interlock would apply to his licence and accepted that home detention would be the likely sentence.
On charges of injuring with intent to injure, sustained loss of traction, dangerous driving, and three counts of drink driving, Judge Cocurullo sentenced Hopewell to four months’ home detention and issued a final warning.
