Duncan Garner: I drove suspended and got it wrong - here's the full story

I drove while my licence was suspended. I should not have. I was convicted, I accepted the punishment, and I got it wrong.

That is the beginning and the end of the legal argument.

I genuinely believed the suspension had expired. It had not. I was 12 days short. There is context around how I became confused, but context is not an excuse. The responsibility was mine to know whether I was legally entitled to drive before getting behind the wheel.

I did not.

The judge was fair, pragmatic and careful. The police prosecutor was professional. My lawyer, Melanie Coxon, put the circumstances clearly. There was no courtroom theatre, no attempt to duck responsibility and no grand speech about why the rules should not apply to me.

The law applied. I broke it. I took my medicine.

For clarity, this was not drink-driving. It was not dangerous driving. Nobody was injured. I did not flee police or put the public at risk. I had accumulated too many demerit points, my licence was suspended, and I drove before that suspension had officially ended.

Those facts matter because some of the early coverage left plenty of room for readers to imagine something far darker. There was breathless focus on the maximum possible jail term and even commentary about what I was wearing. Crucial context came later.

My mother was worried sick. She spent days wondering what her son had done because the reporting made the charge sound potentially sinister. Once she learned the facts, the picture looked very different.

That does not make the offence disappear. It does show why accuracy and proportion matter.

The final demerit points came from ordinary traffic infringements, including driving a vehicle whose registration needed renewing and travelling at 86km/h in an 80km/h zone. None of that is something to boast about. It is also not the crime of the century.

The court imposed a six-month disqualification, which will take effect later this year, along with a $300 donation to St John. I will serve the disqualification.

Living in Mangawhai means that will bite hard. There is no useful public transport network waiting outside my door. Getting to Auckland will become a major logistical problem, and because this is my first offence, I cannot apply for a limited licence.

That is my problem. I created it.

There is a wider issue here, though. A driving disqualification lands very differently in rural New Zealand than it does in central Auckland or Wellington. In the cities, there are buses, trains, taxis and alternatives. Outside them, losing a licence can mean losing access to work, family and basic services.

The courts have limited room to account for that reality. Perhaps Parliament should look at whether the system properly recognises the transport desert many rural New Zealanders live in. But that debate is separate from my case.

My mistake was simple. I assumed. I should have checked.

Demerit points creep up faster than people think. One ticket becomes another. One administrative oversight joins the pile. Then suddenly the threshold is crossed and the consequences are serious.

So check your points. Check the dates. Do not rely on memory, assumptions or what you think an official may have said. Get it confirmed.

I have spent years criticising people in public life. That means when my turn comes, I do not hide, shift the blame or demand special treatment.

I drove suspended. I was wrong. I have fronted up.

Now I will pay the price and move on.

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