A visitor convicted of excess breath alcohol and careless driving charges has been ordered to pay hefty reparation to his victims.

Shannon Materoa, 44, appeared in the Criminal Court presided by Justice of the Peace Georgina Keenan-Williams on Thursday and entered guilty pleas to both charges through his counsel Lavi Rokoika.

The court heard that at about 2.26am on Saturday, July 8, a motor vehicle accident in Avatiu was reported to Police. Police investigations revealed that the crash involved two vehicles.

The defendant Materoa was driving a rented purple Toyota Vitz motorcar on the public road in the Avatiu area heading towards the back road.

At the same time another vehicle driven by the victim, a black Foton I Tunland

pickup truck, was driving from the opposite direction.

The defendant approached the bend not far from the Avatiu meeting house at a

high speed and lost control and veered onto the oncoming vehicle’s lane and as a result crashed onto the oncoming vehicle.

Police noticed that Materoa had recently consumed alcohol.

A subsequent evidential breath test was conducted on the defendant which

returned a result of 810 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath.

The defendant was also medically examined and discharged before being arrested and placed in custody.

Both vehicles were severely damaged as the result of the crash. The victim’s vehicle suffered damages to the front fenders along the right side

panels and right-side wheel. The defendant’s rented vehicle was irreplaceable, the court heard.

Police was seeking $14,000 reparations for damages to the rental car and $14,394 reparations for the damages to the victim’s pickup truck.

Rokoika said that the defendant needed to return to work in New Zealand and was willing to pay for the cost of damages to the two cars.

However she said that they had some issues with the quote provided by the police prosecution for the repairs to the vehicles.

Rokoika said that there were three quotes of about $7500, $14,300 and $21,000.

“The issue is disparity in the amount,” she said.

JP Keenan-Williams explained that $7000 was the initial quote and once the internal damages were determined, $14,394 was quoted for the victim’s car. The $21,000 quote was the current market value of the new car to replace the rented vehicle.

Rokoika then asked the court if they could enter plea before negotiating the reparation costs to be “agreed by both parties”.

In mitigation, Rokoika said the defendant was a first-time offender and was apologetic for his behaviour.

JP Keenan-Williams in her ruling said that it was not fair to let the defendant off without paying reparations to the victim and the rental company.

For the excess breath alcohol charge, Materoa was fined $300 plus $50 court cost and disqualified from driving for 12 months.

For careless driving, he was fined $50 plus $50 court cost.

JP Keenan-Williams ordered Materoa to pay reparations to the victim and the rental company. His passport will be released once the reparations have been paid.