Alisha Beamsley drove from Whanganui to Palmerston North with her daughter in the car while more than three times the drink-drive limit. (File pic)
A woman with eight drink-drive convictions has narrowly avoided prison, but been given a glimpse into her future if she drives while over the limit again.
“Next time, it will be jail,” Judge Stephanie Edwards told Alisha Beamsley in the Palmerston North District Court on Thursday.
Beamsley was instead sentenced to 7½ months’ home detention for drink-driving, which took place on April 21.
She had driven to Whanganui to give her grandmother some medicine before drinking with her cousin.
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She then drove to Palmerston North, with her daughter in the car, before being pulled over on Rangitīkei St after complaints from members of the public about her driving.
She gave a reading of 776 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath. The legal limit is 250mcg.
She told police her cousin said she could not stay, so she had to get home.
The judge sentenced Beamsley for her sixth and seventh drink-driving charge in 2020, noting at the time Beamsley was doing rehabilitation for alcoholism, but it appeared to not have worked.
“She is driving at a high level again,” the judge said on Thursday.
“She is putting her daughter at risk. She is putting everyone at risk.”
Beamsley was an alcoholic, which the judge said had to be treated as an illness.
“Drinking is one thing [but] she cannot be driving.”
Defence lawyer Jacinda Younger said Beamsley had since engaged with the Monarch Programme to tackle her addiction issues, including the source of why she drank.
“She is enjoying [Monarch] so much she wants to do it twice.”
The judge told Beamsley to think of her children every time she thought about getting behind the wheel after drinking.
“I don’t wish, at all, to punish your children for your decisions.
“In some ways, that’s what I would be doing if I sentenced you to imprisonment.
“I hope for your sake and for your children’s sake [your rehabilitation] is successful.”
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