Medical centre DUI

Staff call police on drink driver

A relapsed alcoholic who stepped on a nail during a bender was so grossly drunk when he drove to a North Queensland medical centre that horrified staff were forced to call the police.

Robert Malcolm Lawson, 57, pleaded guilty in the Ingham Magistrates Court on Thursday to driving under the influence of alcohol in the Hinchinbrook town on September 16.

Lawson’s hands shook uncontrollably as he read a document revealing that he recorded a blood-alcohol content reading of 0.196, just shy of four times over the legal limit and well above the high threshold of 0.150.

Queensland Police Service Senior Prosecutor Mark Fenlon said police were called by medical centre staff who said that they believed a patient who had driven to the practise was intoxicated.

He said police arrived quickly after, at 12.10pm, and saw Lawson in the car park where he provided a specimen of breath.

“He said he had consumed about three 375ml cans of Great Northern (beer) at his home address between 8am and 10.30am,” he said.

“He said he had stood on a nail and was bleeding and decided to go to the medical centre for treatment.”

Mr Fenlon said that even though the defendant had a mobile phone with which to call Queensland Ambulance Service, he still decided to drive.

“He believed he was bleeding out; the defendant did not call triple zero.”

The prosecutor said the concerning aspect about the incident was the extremely high level of intoxication.

“At that reading, he is a danger to not only himself but other road users.”

Lawson, who was self-represented, handed Magistrate Richard Lehmann a written statement.

He told the court that he had suffered a traumatic upbringing that had contributed to him becoming an alcoholic in his 20s but that he had been sober for almost three years.

The defendant said he was home alone when a group of people who had been drinking at a local pub during the day turned up at his house with a bottle of rum.

He said he began drinking with the group “into the early hours of the morning”.

“I woke up the next morning, had a couple of beers, was walking around the yard and I’ve sustained that injury.”

Magistrate Lehmann said the level of drunkenness “was perhaps why you made such a poor decision to drive”.

He noted the defendant had an exemplary traffic record over the last 22 years and that he worked as a volunteer even though he was unemployed.

Lawson was convicted, fined $1200 and disqualified from driving 11 months.