Driver is fined for toilet run

A DISQUALIFIED driver stopped by police during a run to the shops for toilet paper was warned this week that he faced prison if caught behind the wheel again.

Lynn Victor Butcher, 37, of Flying Fish Point, pleaded guilty in the Innisfail Magistrates Court on Monday to driving without a licence disqualified by a court order.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Adam Marre told the court that officers discovered Butcher’s licence had been suspended by the court when he was stopped for a licence check on Judy St, Flying Fish Point at 7.20am on December 22.

Butcher told police he was on his way to the shops to get toilet paper and was unaware that he was driving without a licence because he thought his disqualification period had lapsed.

Butcher’s solicitor, Roger Griffiths, told Magistrate Cathy Mclennan that his client, a father of seven, drove to the shops rather than walked because the whole family was unwell including him.

“The entire family had gastro and I am told the family was literally queued up outside the toilets,” he said.

“It is only a couple of hundred metres to the shop, so he could have walked, but given the fact he was suffering from the condition as well, he made the decision that it would be safer to drive than walk 300m with terrible diarrhoea.

“I accept that the circumstances are a little unusual.”

Ms McLennan said she accepted the submission, but warned Butcher of the consequences of getting behind the wheel again while disqualified .

“Everyone says they are only driving across the road,” she said. “If you drive while disqualified again, I give you a 90 to 95 per cent chance of getting a term of imprisonment.”

Butcher was convicted and fined $500 and disqualified from driving for two years.