A businessman pleaded for leniency, after being convicted for driving careless and driving with excess breath alcohol.

Hewett Napa, who appeared before JP Taoro on Thursday, pleaded guilty to the two charges.

He was stopped by police on March 11 after crashing his vehicle on the backroads of Nikao. He was breath-tested and blew a reading of 630mcg.

Napa asked the Court to be lenient on him as he operated a “small business”. He suggested to JP Taoro that he could perhaps be given a curfew.

Taoro told Napa that he faced a mandatory disqualification from driving period of 12 months, although he could appeal it after six months.

She noted that it was Napa’s first driving offence, and discounted the fines by 33 per cent to reflect this.

He was fined $234 and ordered to pay $50 in Court costs.    

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A man has told the Court he might not be able to afford to pay the $5200 in reparations he has been ordered to pay for a careless driving conviction.

Upokoina Teremoana Taoro appeared before Justice of the Peace Tangi Taoro in the Criminal Court in Avarua on Thursday. He pleaded guilty to a charge of careless driving

JP Tangi Taoro and Upokoina Taoro are not related.

According to the summary of facts, read out in Court, the incident occurred on March 10, 2023, when Upokoina Taoro, driving a pickup truck, crashed into a vehicle in Matavera.

Upokoina Taoro explained to the Court he needed to go back to New Zealand for work, and that he could not afford to pay the reparations, which were likely to be over $5200.

JP Taoro advised Upokoina Taoro to seek advice from the registrar for making payments.