Drug/drink-drivers cop fines, disqualifications in court

A MOTHER of two has paid a hefty price for drink-driving while unlicensed after appearing before Toowoomba Magistrates Court.

Police called to the report of a car crash on a Wilsonton Heights street on the morning of June 26 had arrived to find Shanice Elizabeth Louise Suey standing near her vehicle.

The 27-year-old blew a breath/alcohol reading of 0.145, and police checks of her driving record found she had been driving while unlicensed, police prosecutor Senior Sergeant Russell Reynolds told the court.

Suey pleaded guilty to drink-driving and unlicensed driving.

Her solicitor Michael Corben told the court his client was on a single parent payment and cared for two children.

Magistrate Howard Osborne noted Suey had one previous drug-driving offence.

Mr Osborne fined Suey a total $1050, and disqualified her from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for eight months.

Other drivers pleading guilty before Toowoomba Magistrates Court to drug and drink-driving offences included:

* Russell Keith Cummings, 38, of Toowoomba, who was fined $500 and disqualified from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for three months for driving with a breath/alcohol reading of 0.087 on South St on June 20.

* Peter John Keighran, 63, pleaded guilty to driving on Wattle St on June 22, with methamphetamine and cannabis in his system.

The court heard it was Keighran’s third drug-driving offence within three years and he had other drug related convictions in the same space of time.

Keighran told the court he had since stopped using any drugs and no longer associated with the people he had been.

He declined the offer of probation, telling the court he had sorted out his substance abuse problems.

Magistrate Graham Lee fined him $900 and disqualified him from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for eight months.