Boss blew almost five times the limit

THE co-director of a major Bowen Basin construction company blew nearly five times the limit when police pulled him over in Mackay.

Mackay Magistrates Court on Wednesday heard the 33year-old father was a co-director of a major construction and resources company in the Bowen Basin with offices in Gladstone and Mackay, and almost 400 employees.

The court heard Matthew John Cunnington had been based in Brisbane when he took a flight to Gladstone on September 14, picking up a company car for the final leg to Mackay.

The trip had been organised so Cunnington could attend a business meeting, which was initially planned to take place at a commercial premise in Paget.

Cunnington’s lawyer, Marcus Hahn, said the director was en route to the venue when his clients called telling him they were not on site and asked to move the meeting to the Hay Point Hotel.

Cunnington, a confessed alcoholic, met his clients at the pub for lunch where he later “drank to excess”, consuming 11 beverages including vodka orange drinks and “schooners of whatever was on tap”.

After the lunchtime meeting, Cunnington drove to Mackay where police pulled him over on Paradise St about 6pm. He was breathalysed and returned a 0.24 per cent blood alcohol concentration.

“You were nearly five times the limit,” magistrate Athol Kennedy said to Cunnington.

“Anyone on the road that day would have been in great danger.”

Mr Kennedy asked Cunnington how he would be able to refrain from alcohol in the future after his recent relapse.

Cunnington said his wife was a former policewoman who was now being very “strict” with him.

He also said his mistake “shook him to the core” and he had not touched alcohol since.

Cunnington was disqualified from driving for 12 months and placed on probation for a year.

A conviction was recorded.