Learner loses his wheels after DUI
A LEARNER driver carrying three passengers unsupervised in his mother’s car has been busted driving with a shockingly high blood-alcohol reading.
Kennedy William Tom, 27, pleaded guilty in the Ingham Magistrates Court on Thursday to driving under the influence of alcohol, failing to display learner plates and unsupervised driving on October 5.
Senior Queensland Police Service prosecutor Mark Fenlon revealed Tom recorded a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.192, just under four times the legal limit for qualified drivers.
Learner drivers are required to have no alcohol in their systems.
Mr Fenlon noted in court that Tom was on parole at the time of the offending but that Queensland Corrective Services were not intending to initiate breach action.
The crimes for which Tom was on parole for were not mentioned in court.
Mr Fenlon said Ingham Police were patrolling along Cartwright Street early on the Wednesday morning when they saw Tom’s vehicle “drifting slightly into the oncoming lane and corrected itself”.
He said the patrol made a U-turn and stopped Tom’s Mitsubishi car in Eleanor Street.
The prosecutor said that despite the strong smell of liquor emanating from the car and the front-seat passenger holding an open container of “brown liquid”, Tom told police that he had not been drinking.
He said that statement was proven false when he blew 0.192 at the Ingham Police Station about 30 minutes after Tom was first stopped.
“We are nearly four times the legal limit on a learner’s permit,” he said.
“One has to be concerned about his own safety and the safety of other road users, as well as his passengers driving in that particular condition.”
Mr Fenlon said that in mitigation, Tom had no previous convictions of a similar nature.
He urged a substantial fine
and lengthy driving-disqualification period.
Defence lawyer Margaret Crowther said her client, who lives with his mother and was driving her car, had spent the day drinking with mates.
“He stopped drinking before driving but he still made the poor decision of getting into that car to drive home,” she said.
“I asked him why he drove
the car and he said he had no money or no phone.”
She urged a fine of $1200 and a disqualification period of 12 months.
Magistrate Richard Lehmann told Tom that he “was a danger to yourself, passengers and other road users … it’s a serious offence”.
Tom was convicted, fined $1500 and banned from driving for a year.