Michael Dean Teague leaves the Christchurch District Court after sentencing for intimidating a woman in a road rage incident.

A 46-year-old man must pay $500 to the woman he terrified by tailgating her for 17km across North Canterbury, but is allowed to keep driving.

Michael Dean Teague was on Friday ordered to make the payment for emotional harm to the woman, who declined to meet him at a restorative justice meeting while he awaited sentencing for intimidation.

Defence counsel Paul Norcross told the Christchurch District Court that Teague was genuinely remorseful and had been willing to meet the victim to apologise.

MARK DWYER Teague tailgated the woman for 17km after she flashed her lights to alert him his headlamps were on full beam. "I can feel that frightened emotion that I felt that night," she says.

He had very little recollection of the night of the incident.

READ MORE: Tailgated woman: 'My whole body was shaking, I was petrified'

The woman he followed was terrified by his actions. In her written victim impact report she said she "had never been so scared in her life. Your reaction was so over the top it was unbelievable," Judge Stephen O'Driscoll said.

She said she had not expected any reparation, but hoped Teague would lose his driver's licence.

"Just thinking about it even now makes me feel anxious, I can feel that frightened emotion that I felt that night and it's still very vivid in my mind when I'm driving at night ... I'm not the same."

Before the road rage incident, Teague had moved to Blenheim for work, but lost his job and returned to Christchurch to live with his mother.

Norcross handed the judge a letter from the Marlborough District Health Board.

Judge O'Driscoll said the report from Mental Health Services showed the behaviour appeared to be out of character.

"It goes some way to explaining how this came about for a man who has never appeared before the court before."

He convicted Teague, who pleaded guilty on June 24, and ordered him to pay $500 to the victim as emotional harm reparations.

The police said that about 10.20pm on April 8, Teague was driving his Mitsubishi Outlander on Glasnevin Road, Amberley.

The woman flashed her lights because Teague's lights were on high beam and he then braked heavily, did a U-turn and accelerated hard up behind her car.

His vehicle was so close that all she could see in her mirror was the bonnet of his vehicle.

He kept on tailgating the victim for about 3km, while she became frightened and phoned the police.

Teague continued to follow her into Waipara township, where she turned into a dead end street.

She drove to the end of the street, turned around and stopped. Teague stopped in the middle of the road about 30m away with his lights on full beam.

The woman managed to get past him and drove back to State Highway 1 where she drove to Amberley with Teague still chasing her.

The woman stopped outside the Z service station and Teague turned onto another street and drove away. The woman went to a friend's house and waited for the police.

Police estimated he had followed her for about 17km during the incident.

The woman was disappointed Teague had the "luxury" of continuing to drive.

"I thought that [his licence] might have been taken away from him for six months or something."

She had not expected to get any reparation, so the $500 was a "good result"

"I didn't expect anything to be honest. I just thought he would lose his license and get a smack on the hand."

"I guess anyone having to pay $500 these days is a lot."

She earlier said she "pretty much went into complete shock" during the pursuit.

"My body was just shaking and I couldn't control my body," said the woman, who did not wish to be named.

