Serial drunk driver warned

A FENCING contractor with a history of drink driving offences has been released on parole after being caught with a blood alcohol reading of more than five times the legal limit in the Cape York Peninsula.

Rex Alexander White, 22, was sentenced in Townsville Magistrates Court on Thursday over the incident, in which police pulled him over on the Peninsula Developmental Road south of Coen on October 24, 2017, while driving a “bush- basher” style vehicle.

In court on Thursday White pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of liquor, driving without a licence disqualified by a court order, driving an uninsured vehicle, driving an unregistered vehicle and driving a vehicle not in a safe condition.

Police prosecutor Mark Fenlon said it was White’s fifth drink driving offence in five years.

He said White was pulled over by police concerned about the condition of the vehicle.

“Police spoke to the driver of the vehicle and noticed he was affected by alcohol,” he said. “His speech was slurred, his eyes were bloodshot and glassy. He admitted consum- ing liquor earlier in the day.

“He subsequently declared he was an alcoholic before declining to answer any further questions.”

Mr Fenlon said the vehicle was an unregistered “bushbasher” with dents to all panels and no windscreen.

Defence solicitor Anderson Telford said White’s parents were supporting him to get treatment.

Magistrate Howard Osbourne told White that he needed to have the will to undergo rehabilitation.

“I hope that the sentence I impose will not be the one that will have you back out on the road and end up wiping yourself out,” he said.

White was sentenced to 12 months for driving under in the influence, with an immediate release on parole.

He has been disqualified from holding a driver’s licence for two years.

For driving while disqualified by a court order he was sentenced to four nights imprisonment

White also received fines of $ 372 for driving an unregistered vehicle, $ 501 for driving an uninsured vehicle and $ 750 for vehicle not in a safe condition.