Court <\/a>on Tuesday for sentencing on charges of driving with an excess blood alcohol level and arson after the incident at Hikutaia on the evening of July 31 last year.<\/p>\n\u2018Mobile molotov cocktail\u2019<\/p>\n
It was 7.24pm on that day when Philipp called the victim \u201cin a rage\u201d.<\/p>\n
During the phone call, he threatened her, saying, \u201cF***, you have no idea what\u2019s f****** coming\u201d.<\/p>\n
Fearful, she called police.<\/p>\n
Philipp, meanwhile, drove his Suzuki Swift to Mobil Kopu and pumped fuel into his petrol tank.<\/p>\n
He also filled a 10-litre tote tank, and then poured petrol into the interior of his car, effectively turning his vehicle into a \u201cmobile molotov cocktail\u201d.<\/p>\n
In total, he bought 57 litres of petrol.<\/p>\n
From there, he drove south to the victim\u2019s home in Hikutaia.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the police had arrived and spoke to the victim on her driveway, while her children stayed inside the house.<\/p>\n
At 7.53pm, Philipp, who was intoxicated, deliberately drove the car at \u201cfull speed\u201d down the driveway and into the house, crashing into one of the childrens\u2019 bedrooms.<\/p>\n
As soon as the car hit the house, he ignited the fuel, causing his vehicle to burst into flames and setting fire to the victim\u2019s house.<\/p>\n
The fire caused \u201ca significant amount\u201d of damage to not only the house and his own car but also the attending patrol car, court documents state.<\/p>\n
Philipp got out of the car but suffered burn injuries and was taken to hospital.<\/p>\n
A blood test revealed he had a blood alcohol level of 204mg. The legal limit is 50mg.<\/p>\n
\u2018He\u2019s restored his good character\u2019<\/p>\n
Philipp\u2019s counsel, Amin Osama, said his client knew he was going to prison, it was just a matter of how long.<\/p>\n
He was seeking the maximum of 40% in discounts, taking into account his guilty pleas, previous good character, his motivation to change, and the impact a jail sentence would have on the 9-year-old daughter he shares with the victim.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s clear he has a loving relationship with his daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
A pre-sentence report found that Philipp was a \u201cwell-meaning person and contributor to the community\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s rare when someone can restore their previous good character, and Mr Philipp is someone who has restored their good character.\u201d<\/p>\n
Osama was referring to how it had been 11 years since Philipp\u2019s last drink-driving conviction.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d bought to court references from his employer, his parents, and his sister, who all described him as a \u201cgood father, son, and family man\u201d.<\/p>\n
Judge Noel Cocurullo quizzed Crown Solicitor James Lewis about reparation, asking if any reports about money owed had been completed, given the amount of damage caused.<\/p>\n
However, Lewis said there wasn\u2019t anything on file.<\/p>\n
Judge Cocurullo agreed to issue 35% in discounts, including 20% for the defendant\u2019s guilty plea.<\/p>\n
He jailed Philipp for three years and four months and disqualified him from driving for two years.<\/p>\n
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Philipp then set it on fire. The house, his car, and the attending patrol car all suffered significant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3944,13657,19757,20106,2079,10053,296,342,165346,111,43,139,69,90,165345,1551,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-301213","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-car","9":"tag-carl","10":"tag-cocktail","11":"tag-drove","12":"tag-fire","13":"tag-house","14":"tag-into","15":"tag-mobile","16":"tag-molotov","17":"tag-new-zealand","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-newzealand","20":"tag-nz","21":"tag-on","22":"tag-philipp","23":"tag-set","24":"tag-then"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301213","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=301213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}