When a man with a long history of drink-driving was taken to hospital after crashing his motorcycle, he claimed his fear of needles was so great that he was unable to give a blood sample to test for alcohol.

Dean Ellery, of Taranaki, had crashed into the side of a vehicle as he tried to overtake it on April 1 last year.

He lost control of his motorcycle and came off. He was taken to hospital because of his injuries.

Defence lawyer Kylie Pascoe accepted that ordinarily, a person would refuse to provide a blood sample to hide the fact they had been drinking alcohol.

Ellery appeared in New Plymouth District Court on Tuesday. Photo / Tara Shaskey

But that wasn’t the case for Ellery, she said.

“How come he fell off his bike?” Judge Gregory Hikaka then asked her.

“Because he’s either a rider who’s careless or not a good rider or it does provide some sort of available inference that he wasn’t in full control [while riding] given that he refused [to provide a blood sample].

“His fear of needles might not have been the predominant reason to refuse or it might have been balanced with actually having alcohol in his system.”

The judge said Ellery, 53, had 64 convictions from 1987 to 2019. Six were for drink-driving, one of which was proven through an evidential blood alcohol test.

He has previously served a prison sentence for drink-driving.

A pre-sentence report told the court that for his recent offending, Ellery was remorseful and had been experiencing personal issues at the time of the crash.

He is self-employed and Judge Hikaka said the vehicle Ellery crashed into had not been damaged.

While the recommended sentence was one of community detention, police prosecutor Detective Sergeant Dave McKenzie suggested community work coupled with supervision.

McKenzie spoke highly of Ellery’s efforts during previous community work sentences.

Judge Hikaka acknowledged both the recommended sentence and that prosecution did not have an issue with a community-based outcome.

But he warned Ellery that he was in the “realm of prison”.

“You’ve been there before for this sort of offending.”

However, the judge ruled a sentence that allowed Ellery to continue to contribute to the community and his employment was appropriate.

On an admitted charge of refusing an officer’s request for a blood specimen, Ellery was sentenced to 150 hours of community work. An interlock disqualification, as well as a zero alcohol licence, were also imposed.

“You can take that as something of a generous response to a long history of offending,” Judge Hikaka said before praising Ellery for otherwise “being on the right track”.