Today I want to talk to about a Low Range Drink Driving offence that our Waverley DUI Lawyers appeared on in Waverley Local Court where a result was obtained but both we and our client felt that the result was too severe given our clients particular circumstances. This caused us to then file an Appeal to the District Court in Sydney to seek a better outcome for our client.
DUI Time Stamps
00:30 – 2 Stages to this matter
00:40 – Details of the Low Range DUI incident BAC 0.054
01:30 – No significant aggravating features involved
02:30 – Subjective features & detail of the offender
03:00 – Importance of his job & how reliant on a license he is & lack of public transport
03:40 – Proof of evidence from offenders employer
04:20 – Court had to balance up the strong submissions vs a poor traffic record (prior DUI)
05:00 – Court not prepared to show the leniency of a section 10
05:30 – Our client needed to decide what other options available to appeal the Waverley Court
06:00 – Matter listed at District Court in the Downing Centre in Sydney
06:20 – Issues were the same in the District Court & again we emphasised loss of job
07:17 – Judge was 50/50 whether to issue a Section 10 due to prior DUI incident
08:08 – Appeal upheld & gave our client a Section 10 Good Behaviour Bond
08:35 – Good Behaviour Bond was for a period of 2 years
09:12 – Anyone can Appeal Court decisions (Legal Advice is strongly recommended)
09:55 – Contact Joshua Boorman specialist DUI lawyer – (02) 92838622
10:20 – Contact DUI Lawyers – boormanlawyers.com.au/contact/
Brief Facts of the Case
So basically there are two stages to this matter. It first appeared at Waverley Local Court and basically this matter involved a low range drink-driving offence. Our client works in a restaurant and had consumed two glasses of wine throughout the evening, one with his dinner and then another glass of wine as they were packing up the restaurant just before he left to drive home.
He was driving home and he was pulled over for the purpose of a stationary Random Breath Test and recorded a positive reading at 0.054. So being an unrestricted driver, his legal limit was 0.50, he was just over that legal limit and if he had given it just another 20 to 30 minutes he probably would have been under the legal threshold, but that wasn’t the case here. He drove home and he recorded a positive blood alcohol reading and subsequently charged with Low Range Prescribed Concentration of Alcohol (PCA).
No Aggravating Features Involved
In relation to the actual offence and driving we impressed upon the Court that there were no significant aggravating features involved. He was the sole occupant of the vehicle, he was not speeding and he was not driving erratically. He was just pulled over for a stationary random breath test and because of the time of night, it was just after midnight, there was minimal traffic on the road. There were no pedestrians around, so we submitted all these features in relation to our client’s offence or incident, reduced the risk of injury or accident or harm to others within the community.
He was absolutely cooperative and compliant with the police when pulled over, open and honest about the two drinks he had had, and certainly in relation to this matter we entered an early plea of guilty at the first available opportunity which will always seek some form of discount when the matter comes before the Court.
Personal Details of the Client
In relation to my client, he is 57 years of age and he has been through a very tough time over the last 12 months with the loss of his wife due to cancer and he has become a single parent.
Obviously, he has taken on large burden in recent times due to the loss of his wife and that heartbreak. He is now solely responsible for his young son and needs to provide for him, so basically his job at the restaurant where he works is extremely important to him and what we did want to impress to the Court was the fact that because he does work quite late hours getting home after work is next to impossible with public transport, either it’s insufficient or it is not running. He is not on a huge wage each week, so spending money on expensive taxis six nights weeks to get home would significantly affect his ability to provide for him and his son.
Hardship from Loss of License
So it was stressed to the Court that if he was to lose his licence, he faces hardship. The other thing that we were able to provide to the Court was a statement from his employer, basically saying that it wasn’t just the issue of him having trouble getting home at those late hours of the night, but also that before the restaurant starts he has duties to pick up food and supplies for the kitchen to prepare for the night ahead. He did have a very inherent need to maintain his driver’s license in order to carry out his duties and also to get home every evening so the driver’s licence was a very important part of him being able to continue in his employment and to earn income.
We did stress this to the Court and the one thing the court did have to balance up was that he had some very strong subjective breaches in relation to his personal circumstance and his employment. He also had some relatively strong circumstances in relation to objective features in the way the manner came about. There were no aggravating features involved.
Prior Drink Driving Offence
But the court did see that he had a traffic record there some 16 years ago as he had been charged with a mid-range drink-driving offence and whilst we did explain to the Court that this was during a time of quite significant distress in his life, the Court did take it upon itself to not provide our client with the leniency we were after due to the fact that he should have already learned his lesson some 16 years ago.
Waverley Local Court Result – License Disqualification for 3 months
Subsequently they disqualified our client the three months, that was the minimum period reduced from six month period, they gave him a $500 fine and he was convicted of his low range driving offence. Once we receive those penalties we were at a crossroads. That was the penalty received from the Local Court at Waverley. Our client understood that he had done the wrong thing but he was extremely concerned about the fact that he would lose his job and be unable to earn an income to provide for his son and himself. There was the option there to file an appeal for the sentence and have this appeal heard at a higher court, the District Court Sydney, and that is exactly what our client instructed us to do and we put this appeal on and had the matter sit down for an appeal date in the Downing Centre in Sydney, which was heard just on Monday just gone late in September 2015.
Severity Appeal to Sydney District Court
So basically the issues were pretty much the same in relation to how the incident came about and the strong subjective features in relation to our client. We did have some very strong character references for our client which were already on file that were tendered at the Local Court, but we did want to impress upon the Court how important it was for our client, and the devastating consequences that would come if our client was unable to work due to a loss of licence.
So the Court was once again put in the position where it had to weigh up the fact that he had a traffic record there, he did have a mid-range PCA offence some 16 years ago but it also had to balance out the fact that he did have an inherent need to maintain a driver’s license in order to continue working, and we were able to once again put those strong submissions forward to the judge in the District Court who was at one point very 50/50 whether he would actually issue our client with a section 10 which basically meant that he could keep his licence or whether he would leave the penalties in place from the lower court.
Certainly, the penalties which he received from the lower Local Court were already reduced from the automatic period of 6 months to the minimum period of 3 months, and those penalties were very much well within range for a drink-driving offence of this nature.
Appeal was Successful & Section 10 was issued
However, we were happy that the judge was able to take and give probably a little more consideration to our client’s employment situation and his position as a father and his needs to be able to drive to continue to earning income and subsequently he upheld the appeal, he issued our client with what is called a section 10 and gave him a two-year good behaviour bond.
Ultimately what that meant was that the court accepted our client’s plea of guilty, but he was not convicted and his licence was not disqualified and he was able to continue driving which was the big win and the big result that we were after and he did not receive a crime to this offence.
He was put on a two-year good behaviour bond under section 10 which basically meant that if he breaks the law again for any sort of offence within the next two years, then the court can certainly revoke that good behaviour bond and re-sentence him on this low range drink-driving offence and whatever other offence that would be before the Court in breach of the good behaviour bond.
Overall it is a very, very good result we got for our client and we were happy. We did have to put in the hard yards and we did have to put an appeal on and take it to the next level and everyone out there should know that if you do receive some penalties in the Local Court which you think were a little severe or harsh your circumstances, or you feel very strongly about the need to appeal those sentences given to you in the Local Court there is always the option there to appeal that result to a higher court, that is the District Court, and that is exactly what we did and we came out with the good result today.
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