One of the country's worst drink drivers has been caught for the 14th time driving over the legal alcohol limit.
Richard Steven Rowe, 46, from Waimana, in the Bay of Penty, is in custody awaiting sentence next month and could be jailed for up to two years and disqualified for a year.
Rowe had a breath alcohol level of 1039 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath - two and a half times the legal limit - when he was picked up last month in Hamilton.
He was on home detention for a drink-driving conviction from last year, the Herald on Sunday reports.
It is Rowe's 40th driving conviction and lobbyists say it is time Rowe was off the road permanently.
CrossRoads, part of the Sensible Sentencing Trust, says Rowe is a typical recidivist drink-driver who has shown he is a peril to other road users.
Spokeswoman Ursula Keogh says allowing him to drive is playing Russian roulette with the lives of innocent people.
Auckland lawyer Patrick Winkler says recidivist drink drivers can be indefinitely disqualified if they are convicted of drink-driving in the previous five years and record a breath alcohol reading of above 1000mcg, or refuse a blood test.
The newspaper says Rowe is thought to have been before the courts for driving-related offences regularly since 1982.
