Cruise dreams fail to save 81-year-old drink-driver from conviction
Wednesday, 1 July 2026
An 81-year-old Marlborough man who hoped to avoid a drink-driving conviction so he could go on a United States cruise has had his application rejected after a judge ruled the offending was too serious.
Graham George Cains applied for a discharge without conviction in the Blenheim District Court on Monday, arguing a conviction could prevent him obtaining the visa needed for one of two potential cruises later this year; one taking in Los Angeles and the other Hawaii.
But Judge Richard Russell said drink-driving causing injury was “the second most serious drink-driving charge a person can face” after drink-driving causing death, and the consequences of a conviction were not out of proportion to the gravity of the offending.
Cains was convicted and fined $1200 on the excess breath alcohol causing injury charge, and disqualified from driving for 12 months and one day, and fined a further $250 for careless use of a motor vehicle.
The offending happened on February 14 last year when Cains pulled out from Fell St in Grovetown onto State Highway 1.
Although he had stopped at the give-way sign and had a clear view of the highway, he drove into the path of an oncoming Toyota Hiace travelling at 100kph.
The van driver attempted to avoid the collision but crashed into the rear of Cains’ Ford Mondeo. An RSE worker in the van suffered a rotator cuff injury to his shoulder.
Police later recorded Cains’ breath alcohol level at 600 micrograms per litre of breath, more than twice the legal limit of 250mcg.
Defence lawyer Rob Harrison said Cains had accepted responsibility from the outset, taken part in restorative justice for which his wife had baked the victim a cake with “sorry” written on it in Samoan, completed an impaired driving programme, stopped drinking alcohol, and paid more than $8000 towards repairing the damaged van, along with a $250 emotional harm payment to the victim.
Harrison said Cains and his wife had been on 22 cruises together and cruising was one of the few holidays he could comfortably enjoy at his age and “increasing frailty”.
He said a conviction could jeopardise Cains’ chances of obtaining a United States visa.
Police prosecutor Michael Plant opposed the application, saying New Zealand courts should not be trying to hide convictions from overseas authorities which made visa decisions to “protect their citizens”.
He said it was fortunate the crash was not more serious and that the general public would expect a conviction to follow on from such an accident.
Harrison disputed Plant’s suggestion that obtaining a visa could simply involve “a few extra hoops to jump through”.
“Unless the sergeant runs as an ICE agent in his spare time … I don’'t accept [that],” he quipped.
Judge Russell said Cains’ remorse, guilty plea, age, successful restorative justice and efforts to make amends all counted strongly in his favour.
“You have done everything you possibly can to put things right following the accident,” the judge told him.
“The real problem for you is it was a very serious charge.”
Judge Russell said he accepted a conviction could complicate Cains’ plans to travel to the United States but said those were the ordinary consequences of a conviction.
“There is a difference between those who have to travel and those who express an interest in potentially travelling in the future,” he said.
He also noted there were other cruising destinations that did not have the same visa requirements as the United States and said New Zealand courts did not “shield countries from information on people”.
Judge Russell concluded that entering a conviction would not be out of proportion to the seriousness of the offending and declined the application for a discharge without conviction.