Magistrate Fiona Toose has told a Cargo woman that one factor she takes into account when placing people on a Section 10 Bond is that the offence is unlikely to reoccur.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$1/
(min cost $8)
Login or signup to continue reading
"I don't think three trips to court for a PCA falls within that category," she said.
Davina Clay (40) of Wall Street, Cargo was before Parkes Local Court on Monday, January 20, charged with drive with middle range PCA (0.081) at Tullamore on November 4, 2019.
According to police facts tendered in court, Clay was pulled over in Cardigan Street, Tullamore at 8.05am for a roadside breath test which returned a positive result.
She was arrested and taken to Tullamore Police Station for a further breath analysis which returned the reading of 0.081.
Clay told police she had consumed an unknown quantity of Great Northern mid strength beer between 1pm and midnight the day before while at the Jimmy Barnes concert.
Her licence was suspended and confiscated.
Clay's solicitor, Bill Burke, told the court his client drove earlier than she expected to on the morning after the concert.
"There was an impending dust storm and without having had breakfast she drove to get out before the storm hit," he said.
"It would be unusual for your honour to grant a third Section 10 but I would ask that you grant her the minimum period of disqualification and an interlock licence thereafter so she can drive to work."
Magistrate Toose told Mr Burke that this is Clay's third drink driving charge because, rather astonishingly, she had been given Section 10 bonds on the two previous occasions.
"Ms Clay, there doesn't appear to be any aggravating feature in relation to your driving at the time, however I can't ignore the fact that you have previously come to court for drink driving offences, so when you say you are careful not to drink and drive I think you really need to put that into practise," Magistrate Toose said.
"If you are going to have a big night out, the chances are you are going to be over the limit the next day, so you need to be mindful of that when you are drinking.
"I do appreciate things change, such as things like storms and the need to be somewhere at short notice.
"You've just got to take that greater care, if you know you've got to be somewhere you simply don't drink.
"I accept you've attended the traffic offender program and you have the need for a licence and you've entered a plea of guilty.
"I will take all that into account, however this is a mid range PCA and you are certainly not a stranger in coming to court because of that.
"You certainly had the benefit of leniency on two prior occasions so you need to understand that one of the things we look at is if it's likely to reoccur - and quite clearly it is likely to reoccur because it has. Three times."
Magistrate Toose fined Clay $800, disqualified her from driving for three months and ordered her to comply with an interlock order for 12 months.
ALSO MAKING NEWS:
