I was ‘getting a blanket’

A grossly intoxicated man who told police he was cold and driving home to get a warm blanket was among three drink-drivers to appear in a North Queensland Court on the same day.

Sugar-cane haul-out driver Clive Reginald Burgen, 37, pleaded guilty in the Ingham Magistrates Court on Thursday, June 16, to operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol in Lannercost in the early hours of May 18.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Erin Collis said officers were called to a property on Crotons Road west of Ingham at 3.17am.

She said Ingham Police noted the defendant at the address was clearly drunk as his eyes were glazed, he was stumbling and his speech slurred.

“The defendant has then entered a vehicle and attempted to start a vehicle in the presence of police … as a result the defendant was warned multiple times in relation to drink-drive offences.”

Senior Constable Collis said police left the property just before 4.25am but as they were driving noticed headlights behind them, stopped and saw Burgen drive past.

She said a road-side breath test revealed a breath-alcohol reading of 0.179 per cent, some three-and-a-half times over the legal allowable limit.

The prosecutor said the defendant admitted to drinking at least a dozen beers and wine since the previous evening, did not know the legal limit and was driving to “get a blanket”.

Defence lawyer Margaret Crowther said her client had a clean driving history and the offending was out of character.

She urged a fine and a driving disqualification of the minimum mandatory six months. Magistrate Scott Luxton said Burgen’s decision to drive was difficult to understand, agreeing with Ms Crowther’s assessment that the offending was an aberration.

“(But) it’s the potential risk to other persons when you are driving a motor vehicle with such a high blood-alcohol concentration; you were clearly in no shape to drive.”

Burgen was fined $1200 and banned from driving for a further seven months.

Also appearing in the Ingham Magistrates Court was Robert Joseph Bertucci, who pleaded guilty to driving at almost three times the legal limit after he was stopped in town in the early evening of June 1.

Senior Constable Collis said Bertucci had two previous drink-drive convictions within two-and-a-half years and proffered the court a certificate of analysis that showed the defendant had a breath-alcohol reading of 0.146, just under the high alcohol limit of 0.150.

She said Ingham Police stopped Bertucci on Gort St at 5.22pm.

“He stated that he had earlier consumed about six or seven schooners of Great Northern at the Hinchinbrook Hotel … and he was aware of the legal alcohol limit in Queensland.”

Magistrate Luxton said the case was aggravated by the high reading and prior recent convictions. Bertucci was convicted, fined $1250, disqualified from driving for 10 months and warned about his conduct.

Bradley John Bianchi admitted in the Ingham Magistrates Court to driving over the general alcohol limit with a BAC of 0.089 per cent in Davidson St, Ingham at 2.20pm on May 13.

The defendant told the court that he had recently lost his mother and was “not thinking clearly” at the time of the offence. He was convicted, fined $800 and disqualified from driving for the minimum mandatory one-month period.