Sentencing — driving with excess breath alcohol causing death — driving with excess breath alcohol causing injury — leaving scene of accident — Gacitua v R [2013] NZCA 234 — R v Cooksley [2003] 3 All ER 40 — Brampton v Police [2015] NZHC 2618 — Walker v R [2016] NZHC 1963 — R v McClutchie [2013] NZHC 1988 — Carroll v R [2019] NZCA 172 — Solicitor-General v Heta [2018] NZHC 2453 — Reweti v R [2018] NZHC 809 — R v Hessell [2009] NZCA 450, [2010] 2 NZLR 298 — Sentencing Act 2002, s 27. The defendant appeared for sentence on two charges of driving with excess breath alcohol causing death and two of driving with excess breath alcohol causing injury. He had lost control of his car while overtaking at speed and had crashed head-on into another car. Two of the occupants of the other car were killed and the other two were seriously injured. The defendant then fled the scene of the accident, and when spoken to afterwards denied being the driver. He was also found to be severely intoxicated. The Court observed that the defendant had a very poor driving record, including two previous convictions for driving with excess breath alcohol. He had also completed an alcohol and drug outpatient programme while on supervision for this previous offending. Other aggravating features of the offending were driving at speed on a poorly-lit road, overtaking another car in unsafe circumstances, and leaving the scene and denying the offending. The Court set a start point of six years' imprisonment. The Court considered that matters raised in the defendant's s 27 report were unexceptional but allowed a small discount for the role that the defendant's background likely played in his offending. The Court decided not to uplift the sentence for the defendant's previous offending, in order to avoid imposing a crushing sentence on a relatively young offender. After discounts for guilty plea the final sentence was four years three months, and the Court also imposed a three-year disqualification from driving. Judgment Date: 2 July 2019.