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Land Transport Act 1998

Driving offences involving drink or drugs, and penalties and procedures - Mandatory alcohol interlock sentence for repeat offences and certain first offences

65AH: When court may take alcohol interlock sentence into account

You could also call this:

“Court considers alcohol interlock sentence costs when deciding punishment for driving offences”

When a court is deciding on a punishment for someone who has committed a qualifying offence or a concurrent offence, they must give the appropriate fine, jail time, assessment, or community-based sentence. They have to do this even if they also have to give an alcohol interlock sentence.

The court can think about how much an alcohol interlock sentence costs. If they want to, they can lower the amount of any fine because of this cost.

For a concurrent offence that caused injury or death, the court must stop the person from having or getting a driver licence for the right amount of time. This time is based on the rules for the concurrent offence.

For a concurrent offence that didn’t cause injury or death, the court can choose not to stop the person from driving. They can do this because the person is already getting an alcohol interlock sentence for the qualifying offence.

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This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS61405.

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65AG: Alcohol interlock licence requirements, or

"Rules for driving with an alcohol interlock device in your car"

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65AI: Exceptions: persons who are not to be given alcohol interlock sentence, or

"People who don't have to use an alcohol interlock device in their car"

Part 6 Driving offences involving drink or drugs, and penalties and procedures
Mandatory alcohol interlock sentence for repeat offences and certain first offences

65AHWhen court may take alcohol interlock sentence into account

  1. A court must order any fine, imprisonment, assessment, or community-based sentence that is appropriate for a qualifying offence or a concurrent offence regardless of the requirement to impose an alcohol interlock sentence.

  2. However, the court may take into account the cost of an alcohol interlock sentence and may discount the amount of any fine.

  3. For a concurrent offence,—

    Injury or death

  4. that resulted in injury or death, the court must disqualify the person from holding or obtaining a driver licence for the period of disqualification that is appropriate under the provision relating to the concurrent offence:

      1. No injury or death

    1. that did not result in injury or death, the court may, taking into account the alcohol interlock sentence that must be ordered for the qualifying offence under section 65AC, choose not to order any disqualification that might otherwise apply to the concurrent offence.

      Notes
      • Section 65AH: inserted, on , by section 26 of the Land Transport Amendment Act 2017 (2017 No 34).