{"id":244003,"date":"2026-01-21T07:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T07:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/244003\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T07:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T07:36:08","slug":"john-major-meihana-jailed-for-drug-driving-causing-death-of-philipa-ann-beech-in-tararua-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/244003\/","title":{"rendered":"John Major Meihana jailed for drug-driving causing death of Philipa Ann Beech in Tararua district"},"content":{"rendered":"

He said the feeling that he might have been was \u201chorrific\u201d.<\/p>\n

But the court was told that responsibility actually lay with John Major Mason, 42, who uses the surname Meihana.<\/p>\n

Meihana had been driving north about 5pm on June 13 with both methamphetamine and a high level of cannabis in his system.<\/p>\n

On a 100km\/h section of the road, his utility vehicle crossed the centre line, struck a barrier and then careered into the path of the Beeches\u2019 southbound vehicle.<\/p>\n

Philipa Beech died at the scene<\/a> from multiple injuries.<\/p>\n

Meihana apologised to the Beech family from the dock, saying \u201cI am very sorry\u201d, shortly before he was sent to prison on separate charges of causing death and causing injury while under the influence of drugs.<\/p>\n

He had admitted those charges earlier, along with dishonesty and charges for the possession of ammunition and cannabis for supply, which were dealt with at the same time.<\/p>\n

Judge Bridget Mackintosh imposed a sentence of four years and 10.5 months in prison.<\/p>\n

She also disqualified him from driving for four years from his parole eligibility date of July 21, 2028.<\/p>\n

Meihana had described what had happened as a \u201ctragic accident\u201d, but Crown solicitor Steve Manning said he had deliberately used drugs and chosen to drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened was tragic, but no accident,\u201d the lawyer said.<\/p>\n

Manning said Meihana had taken no steps towards rehabilitation during six months on bail, had kept using cannabis and had been caught driving in Havelock North<\/a> in breach of his bail conditions.<\/p>\n

But Meihana\u2019s counsel, Lisa Grant, said he had now signed up for rehabilitation programmes in prison and accepted that he had an addiction problem.<\/p>\n

He was remorseful and trying to do better, and had offered to help the Beech family in any way he could, including helping on their farm, shearing sheep.<\/p>\n

Martin Beech suffered a shattered kneecap in the crash, as well as a broken sternum and 13 broken ribs.<\/p>\n

He spent a week in hospital, then nine weeks in a leg brace, which he said was extremely uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

In October, his injured knee gave out and he fell, causing injuries to his cheek, which required four stitches.<\/p>\n

Beech detailed the physical hurt and financial losses he had suffered because of the crash, but said his \u201cgreatest loss was Philipa\u201d \u2013 the woman with whom he had spent almost every moment for 46 years.<\/p>\n

In a moment, he said, because of Meihana\u2019s mistake, his best friend had been taken away and \u201cmy beautiful wife has gone\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME\u2019s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke\u2019s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He said the feeling that he might have been was \u201chorrific\u201d. But the court was told that responsibility…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[142935,142936,11519,634,7557,103239,2082,42,78,14641,5126,661,142933,43,1118,142934,29421,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-244003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-ann","9":"tag-beech","10":"tag-causing","11":"tag-death","12":"tag-district","13":"tag-drugdriving","14":"tag-for","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-in","17":"tag-jailed","18":"tag-john","19":"tag-major","20":"tag-meihana","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-of","23":"tag-philipa","24":"tag-tararua","25":"tag-top-news","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-topnews","28":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}