Mother of Tom Phillips' children pleads guilty after crashing car while drink driving

Belinda Feek, Open Justice multimedia journalist

The mother of the Marokopa children was three times over the legal alcohol limit when she crashed her vehicle into a drain before it came to a rest on its roof.

Catherine Christey was driving along Tauraroa Valley Rd, Waimahora, about 10.20pm on August 2 when her car veered off the road and crashed.

A member of the public called 111 and emergency services found Christey at the scene exhibiting signs of alcohol consumption.

Her initial blood reading was 174mg, but that was adjusted to 165mg when she reappeared in the Te Kūiti District Court this morning via audio visual link.

The legal limit is 50mg.

Christey first appeared in court last month, the same morning that her former husband, Tom Phillips, was shot dead, and police began searching for their children.

The 46-year-old, who is known as Cat, hadn’t seen her children, aged 12, 10, and 9, since Phillips took them in December 2021.

However, after a tip-off from a member of the public that Phillips was involved in the burglary of the PGG Wrightson store in Piopio during the early hours of the morning, a police officer took chase.

Road spikes were laid by police on Te Anga Rd, anticipating that it would be the route Phillips would take. And it was.

But Phillips fired an unknown number of shots from a high-powered rifle, hitting an officer in the head, while four bullets struck his patrol car.

Police returned fire, and Phillips was shot dead.

Just hours later, Christey appeared in court on a charge of driving with an excess blood alcohol.

She was back in court today before Community Magistrate Kim Davies.

Christey’s counsel, Craig Tuck, entered a guilty plea on her behalf and successfully opposed an in-court camera media application by NZME due to the “number of stresses operating here”.

Davies agreed to decline the application due to what was currently going on in Christey’s life.

She was convicted and fined $400 with no court costs. Davies said she lessened the fine because of the cost of the installation of an alcohol interlock device in Christey’s car.

She now faces a 28-day disqualification before the interlock is installed and remains in place for 12 months.

After that, she is then subjected to a zero alcohol licence for three years.

“So it’s effectively a two-step process and a four-year sentence,” Davies told Christey.