September will see the introduction of new drink driving laws which will aim for harsher penalties, enforcing the seriousness of drink driving offences which endanger lives. The new laws will close the loop hole for repeat offenders who are treated as first-time offenders if their latest conviction was more than five years before.

The laws will now consider drink driving offences of up to 10 years when sentencing, which is consistent with other legal time frames. There are currently more than 800 repeat drink drivers a year and the expectations are that these laws will result in larger fines, longer periods of disqualification and a greater likelihood of facing a sentence of imprisonment.