Our Penrith DUI Lawyer recently appeared at Penrith Local Court where we saved our clients licence for a middle range drink driving offence where the blood alcohol reading was 0.082. Our client was extremely happy since he was not criminally conviction, he was able to immediately resume driving and recover from the significant financial losses he suffered in the time he was off the road.
Middle Range DUI Offence at Penrith Court
The facts of the matter were that our client had been at his brother’s birthday party. He had consumed about six full strength beers over about a four and a half hour period. The defendant tried to count his drinks and self-assessed his sobriety. Our client waited about an hour after last drink before deciding to get into his car to take his his sister home. On the way home he missed the correct turn off and got a bit lost. He then performed an illegal U-turn at an intersection. Police saw this, they took up with him and pulled them over a short distance down the road. He was then subject to a roadside breath test which proved to be positive and over the legal limit.
Our client was then transported to the police station. That is where he recorded a blood alcohol reading was 0.082 which just fell into the middle range drink driving category.
Defendants Work & Personal Issues
Our client works as forklift driver and a storeman. He’s got to get up and be at work at 5:00 am in the morning. Our client lives with his defacto partner and they have got a six year old boy together. So since being off the road since the offence occurred he has been spending around $30 a day to get to work with expensive taxi’s and Uber’s and then obviously to get home from work as well. Which is anywhere between $150 to $300 a week, he has been spending on his work commute. As at the time of the Court date our client had already been off the road for the past six weeks. So this has certainly hit him hard financially and has caused significant financial hardship on him and his family.
His partner does work, but usually works in the afternoons. He finishes work at about 1:30pm and would usually go and pick their son up from school. So he hasn’t been able to do this. This has been logistically difficult for the whole family over the past six weeks.
No Conviction & No Disqualification – Conditional Release Order
At Court we were boldly asking for the Court to not convict him, not record a conviction, not further disqualify him and not place him on any interlock program. We were asking the Court to put him on a Drink Driving Conditional Release Order under section 9(1)(b), which is basically a good behavior bond for anywhere up to 2 years.
We conceded that this was a big ask, especially given that it was a middle range drink driving offence, and that his traffic record was not all that good. Over the past 10 years or so, he’s had a spattering of, more minor traffic infringements, but about 10 or 11 years prior, he was, declared a habitual traffic offender due to repeated disqualifed driving offenses, which are serious offenses.
Obviously over time he’s grown up and matured, his traffic record has improved. However, his prior history there on his record for the Court to consider. It was not a record which was exactly supportive of the matter we had before the Court.
But I just did want to stress the hardship, both financially and logistically that being off the road had on his family. The fact that the blood alcohol reading had just sneaked snuck into the middle range category. These factors were ultimately his saving grace.
Courts decision on the DUI
The magistrate was very receptive to our strong submissions put forward on behalf of our client. The Court also took into account that he successfully complete the Traffic Offenders Program.
Our client had some references written from his partner, his mother-in-law and a good strong letter of apology from him to the Court showing his genuine remorse over the entire matter.
So we were grateful, and our client was certainly very lucky today, because the court did accede to our request to deal with this matter by way of a Section 9(1)(b) Conditional Release Order without proceeding to conviction.
Effectively, this meant that our client was not criminally convicted. Additionally, he can commence driving straight away and does not have to complete the mandatory alcohol interlock program. There was no financial penalty ordered for the middle range drink driving offence.
However, he did receive a $250 fine for the illegal U-turn that he did perform. But overall we had an extremely happy. He can now move forward and learn from his mistakes.
Thanks for tuning in to our recent DUI case review for our clients middle range DUI offence.
Contact DUI Lawyers Sydney
So that was the matter which we appeared on at the Penrith Courthouse in Western Sydney.
If you have been charged with a serious traffic offence then rest assure we are experts in traffic and DUI law in Sydney and New South Wales.
It is not a problem for us to attend and appear at any Courthouse in New South Wales or Queensland for that matter. If you have got any questions or you have got a similar case, please don’t hesitate to give me a call 1300 941 900 or go onto our website, which is BoormanLawyers.com.au
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