Driver left pub at .265

Second time in five years caught driving with reading above .25

A MAN who blew more than five times the legal limit as he drove from a Toowoomba hotel car park told police he was driving to his home near Esk.

Police conducting a random breath-testing site on Ruthven St about 9.45pm, July 19, had seen Hunter William Wilson drive out of the car park of the Shamrock Hotel.

Pulled over, the 43-year-old told police he had intended driving home to Mt Hallen near Esk, police prosecutor Nicola Prince told Toowoomba Magistrates Court.

Wilson blew a breath/alcohol reading of 0.265, admitting to police he had been on a “two-day bender”, she said.

Ms Prince told the court it had been the second time Wilson had blown a high reading, having returned a breath/alcohol reading 0.3 in 2015.

Wilson pleaded guilty to driving while under the influence of liquor.

His barrister David Jones said his client had had his first drink of alcohol when he was nine years of age and had been an alcoholic at 12.

His client had actually kicked a drug habit in the past but alcohol had remained a problem for him though he had sought counselling a number of times and he had been attending the Alcohol and Other Drugs Service (AODS) in Toowoomba.

His client was one of those people who turned to substance abuse when under stress and his client had at the time been experiencing family stresses, he said.

A Probation and Parole officer told the court Wilson had been subject to two probation orders imposed for alcohol-related offending and submitted another probation order probably would not help him.

Magistrate Damian Carroll said it was fortunate for Wilson and the community that police had pulled him over before he drove any further.

Mr Carroll sentenced him to three months in jail, wholly suspended for 18 months, and disqualified him from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for 18 months.