Drinking and driving continues to be a major problem on Yukon roads, as indicated by three territorial court decisions released this week.

The heaviest sentence was handed down by chief territorial court judge Karen Ruddy, who sentenced Steven Walter Helm of Carcross to a year and half behind bars.

According to Ruddy's reasons for sentencing, Helm was caught drinking and driving three times between July 2008 and October 2009.

The first time, an RCMP officer stopped the 43-year-old man after observing him driving erratically.

It is not clear from the judge's summary if Helm had his licence taken away after that incident.

In September 2009, RCMP officers caught up with Helm again, this time acting on a number of calls from Carcross citizens.

"One witness indicated, in fact, he nearly ran into her,” the judge notes.

Helm was no longer in his vehicle by the time officers arrived, but he pleaded guilty to the charge nevertheless.

He was finally arrested less than a month later after his mother called police to say her son was driving drunk.

He was pulled over and found to have a blood alcohol level more than twice the legal limit.

In sentencing, Ruddy noted Helm has six prior impaired driving convictions and two for driving while disqualified.

She accepted the Crown's suggestion he be given a relatively long sentence of 18 month plus a three-year driving suspension for the three offences.

In two of the incidents, she noted, Helm put children, construction workers and other members of the public at risk.

The other two offenders received considerably lighter sentences, both from the same visiting judge, Donald Luther.

He sentenced 43-year-old Kevin Adamson to nine months in jail and a three-year driving suspension.

It was a compromise between the Crown's suggestion the man be given 18 months and his defence lawyer's request for a conditional sentence.

"There are too many risks associated with it,” Luther said of the defence's plea to let the man serve his sentence on house arrest.

The judge noted Adamson's extensive drunk driving record and the fact Parliament and the Supreme Court of Canada have identified repeat offenders as deserving of longer sentences.

He gave Adamson credit, however, for his behaviour since his arrest and his promise to attend Alcoholics Anonymous once out of jail.

Three days later, Luther had yet another drunk driver before him, Russell Wayne Andre, whose case dates back to December 2000. This time, he wondered why the Crown hadn't suggested a longer sentence.

"I would have thought that an appropriate sentence here would probably have been in the eight- to 12-month range, but I am not going to go beyond what the Crown has suggested in this case.”

He called the Crown's suggestion of a four-month sentence "generous,” especially in light of the fact Andre avoided police for almost 10 years before finally coming to court on the charge.

"We cannot seem to be rewarding people for absconding and then showing up afterwards and saying that things have gone well,” he said before approving the four-month sentence.

Also in court this week was Mike Schmidt, the 28-year-old man who was behind the wheel in the crash which sent Yukoner Jessica Frotten to the intensive care unit in Edmonton.

Frotten remains in a wheelchair. Schmidt has been charged with impaired driving in connectionwith the December 2009 rollover west of Whitehorse.

Also in court was Jamie McBride who is charged with dangerous driving causing death and impaired driving in connection with the death of Diane Roby on July 13, 2008.

He was in court this week for a preliminary hearing.

Evidence heard at that hearing is covered by a publication ban. A trial date has not been set.

Police forces across the country reported nearly 85,000 impaired driving offences in 2008; 363 of those came from the Yukon, according to Statistics Canada.