Expensive night out

Baird caught twice breaching banning order

A YOUNG Toowoomba man had an expensive night out clubbing and he didn’t even get into the club.

Due to an incident near The Cube Hotel on June 17, Zakari Michael Baird had been handed a police banning notice prohibiting him from being within the Safe Night Precinct, which is bordered by West, James, Hume and Campbell Sts, between 6pm and 6am each day until September 17.

However, police on patrol called to an incident outside The Cube in the early hours of July 31 had arrived to find Baird had already left the scene in a taxi.

However he had been captured on CitySafe Camera footage on the footpath outside the club earlier that morning, Toowoomba Magistrates Court heard.

Not learning his lesson, Baird was again found by police inside the Safe Night Precinct on the evening of August 5, police prosecutor Sergeant Alister Windsor told the court.

The 20-year-old told police he had been out to dinner with his brother and had tried unsuccessfully to gain entry to The Cube Hotel about 9.50pm but was refused when his ID was scanned, Sgt Windsor said.

He told police he had succumbed to peer pressure and realised he had been “stupid”, he said.

Handed a notice to appear in court, Baird pleaded guilty to two counts of contravening a police banning notice when he appeared in court on Monday.

His solicitor Brad Skuse, of Skuse Graham Lawyers, told the court his client had no criminal history at all and entered early pleas of guilty to the charges.

Mr Skuse asked that no conviction be recorded in the circumstances.

Magistrate Graham Lee ordered the convictions not be recorded and fined Baird $600.