A man who drank 12 RTDs on the drive from Dunedin to Oamaru told police, after a brief chase, he was simply driving some mates to Christchurch.
Hamish Ronald Petterson's confession came after rounding a queue of traffic on the wrong side of the road and skidding through an intersection, the Dunedin District Court heard last week.
The 21-year-old later pleaded guilty to aggravated drink-driving, dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and failing to stop for police.
The court heard the defendant had never held a driver licence and had been convicted of a slew of vehicle offences in the past couple of years.
Petterson's first bad decision came when he got behind the wheel of his friend's mother's Nissan Bluebird on June 29.
The next dozen came as he downed a dozen bourbon and colas on the drive from Dunedin to Oamaru.
In Severn St, the town's main street, he approached an intersection at which a queue of traffic waited at a red light.
Instead of joining the line, Petterson drove round a traffic island into the wrong lane and bypassed the cars at speed.
Police officers who spotted him activated their lights and sirens in a bid to pull him over.
His blunders continued.
Again he approached stationary traffic, this time at the intersection with Coquet St, and again attempted to manoeuvre around them.
The police chase though was short-lived.
Petterson rounded the corner too quickly, skidded into the gutter on to the footpath and damaged two of the car's wheels so badly it could not go on.
While being processed at the local police station he explained he was driving his mates to Christchurch and ''got scared'' when he saw the police car pursuing him.
The defendant blew a reading of 600mcg. The legal limit is 250mcg.
Probation assessed Petterson as a low risk of reoffending, which left Judge Michael Turner dumbfounded.
''You are a high risk of reoffending,'' he said.
''Driving drunk and driving dangerously in the way you have puts innocent road users at risk. Until you do something about your drinking and driving habits that will remain the case.''
The court heard Petterson was soon to become a father, but he might miss the big moment if it happened at the weekend.
He was sentenced to four months' community detention, with a weekend curfew to an Abbotsford address, and nine months' supervision. He remains banned from driving indefinitely.
