Taking his previous offences into account Judge Saunders sentenced Schmetz to a 10-month prison sentence and banned him from driving for 10 months. A man whose alcohol addiction had "overwhelmed him" since the death of his wife about 20 years ago, fell asleep drunk in the back of the Greymouth District Court last week when he appeared for sentence on his fourth drink-driving charge and a drugs charge. Judge David Saunders said the drink-driving charge, which dated from December 24, 2014, in Christchurch, had been at the "extraordinarily high reading" of 1459mg. However, the court was told by Community Probation that despite the address being suitable, it was not fit for habitation. The gaps between Schmetz's drink-driving offences was quite large, with his previous offending having been in 1982, 1996 and 2007.

Source: New Zealand Herald June 22, 2016 06:33 UTC