We’ve reached Episode 20 of the Boorman Lawyers Court Reports. In this episode, we take a look at a low range drink driving offence that we appeared that at Waverley Local Court where we achieved a Section 10 dismissal.
DUI Video #TimeStamps
00:13 – Welcome to #BoormanLawyers Waverley Court in Sydney
00:26 – Low Range PCA (0.077)
01:55 – Unusual circumstances which lead to the incident
03:40 – Good Traffic Record
04:00 – Successfully completed Traffic Offenders Program
04:15 – Strong letter of apology by defendant was tendered
04:25 – Statement of support from partner + other references
05:35 – We presented a strong & persuasive case to the Court
06:15 – Section 10 (1)(B) – Conditional Release Order to be of Good Behaviour for 6 months
06:45 – Contact Boorman Lawyers 1300 941 900
07:05 – Visit our website http://BoormanLawyers.com.au
Boorman Lawyers expert Waverley Court DUI Lawyers recently appeared on a low range drink driving offence where our client was charged with a blood alcohol rating of 0.077.
Extenuating Circumstances Prior to the Drink Driving Offence
In relation to the actual incident, there were some quite extenuating circumstances which occurred. On the night of the offence, my client and her boyfriend had been to dinner at a local pub led then walked back to where my client’s boyfriend lives a short distance down the road. Over dinner, my client admits to consuming three Full-Strength beers, which equated to about 3-4 standard drink and this was within the period of about two hours, by then they walked back to where my client’s boyfriend lives a short distance down the road. Along the way on the walk home, they ended up getting into quite a heated argument. When they reached the unit where my client’s boyfriend lives, the argument erupted into quite a nasty situation.
To make this matter a little bit more unusual, my client’s boyfriend is deaf and they communicate by way of sign language. So, it was a bit more of an unusual situation. There wasn’t a lot of screaming or yelling going on but a lot of non-verbal communication going on in quite a nasty and angry way. A neighbour has witnessed my client and her boyfriend arguing at front of the complex and they called police because they were not really sure what was happening that they knew something nasty was going on.
At one point, my client’s boyfriend snatched her purse and the phone out of her hand and threatened not to give it back. Our client at that point felt quite intimidated. So, she got her car keys. She jumped into her car which was parked outside of the complex and she started the engine with the intention of driving a short distance down the road to sleep in the car for the night. At the time she was simply trying to get away from her boyfriend as she did feel somewhat intimidated. Her boyfriend then jumped on the bonnet of the car in a further active intimidation. She then drove the car for approximately three or four meters. The boyfriend slid off the bonnet, fell onto the ground, didn’t sustain any injuries but got back-up and started arguing with her while she was in the car. She got out of the car to make sure her boyfriend was okay and then she took off on foot to run away from him to get away from the situation.
The boyfriend then went back into his unit. She returned back to the vehicle, sat in the car. She was emotionally upset, stressed and she was crying uncontrollably when the police came. They breath tested her and they ended up charging her with low range drink driving with the blood alcohol rating 0.077.
Low Range DUI with Low Level of Objective Seriousness
Obviously, the facts in relation to this particular incident were quite unusual. There were some extenuating circumstances involved and certainly, my client has a pretty good traffic record, certainly nothing on her record of his nature. It just showed that this particular incident was fuelled by emotions and wasn’t how my client would usually conduct herself off the road.
Explaining the DUI backstory
What’s more she’d only move the car on a very short distance. These issues really needed to be explained and played out to the Court because the police did not present the back story in the Police Facts and if these events were not properly explained to the Court then the level of leniency obtained may not have been forthcoming.
Successfully Completed the Traffic Offenders Program
So, we did that. We did indicate to the Court that my client had completed the traffic offenders program. She was remorseful and contrite over the actions that she had taken on the night.
DUI Letter of Apology & Partners Letter of Support
We also got her to put together a strong letter of apology outlining exactly what had happened that night, that she had taken remorse over her actions, the lessons that she had taken away from the traffic offenders program. We also tendered to the Court a statement from her boyfriend also confirming that he felt partly responsible for the actions that she did take that night since he did act in a regrettable and somewhat intimidating manner towards her to somewhat cause her to jump into the car to begin with.
DUI Character References
We also had a letter from my client’s Australian sign language tutor to confirm that she is in the process of becoming an Auslan Interpreter for an Australian sign language interpreter and this just shows that she is a person that is relatively community minded.
We also got another letter from her employer just to confirm her employment. And her need to remain conviction-free since she does require to maintain working with children certificate and any person who needs to maintain a working with children certificate needs to remain conviction-free. So that was one point that we expressed to the Court that any criminal conviction could cause problems ability in her current employment.
Conditional Release Order with No Conviction
With all that, we explained that to the Court and we presented all that material and the Magistrate was very receptive to what we have to say and especially the material that we presented, we did seek that our client be dealt with under provisions of Section 10(1)(b) (now called a Conditional Release Order) putting our client on a good behaviour bond for a period of time. However, under Section 10, that would mean that our client would not be criminally convicted, would not have her licence disqualified and would not receive any financial penalty.
The Magistrate agreed with us in relation to our submission for a Conditional Release Order and placed our client on a behaviour good bond for six months.
So, our client was extremely thankful that she was able to maintain her driver’s license, maintain a conviction-free record and move forward pass this unfortunate incident.
Contact our Waverley Court DUI Lawyers
So, if you found yourself on the wrong side of the law and are required to attend Waverley Local Court or any other Court in New South Wales then you should contact our office immediately.
As you can see, this case was quite different. There were some unusual circumstances involved and every drink driving case is different in relation to the facts.
Feel free to give us a call on 1300 941 900, or alternatively, go along to our website, which is BoormanLawyers.com.au. What we’ve done there is we’ve tried to create a bit of an information hub surrounding traffic laws in New South Wales, plenty of information there surrounding offences, laws, penalties, statistics, there’s videos, Court reports like this one that you can watch to make yourself familiar with the particular situation that you might find yourself in.
But by all means, feel free to give me a call to a have a telephone consult in relation to your matter, 1300 941 900 and we can see what we can do for you.