Parramatta Local Court – High Range PCA – January 2015 from Sydney Drink Driving Lawyers.
Hi, guys. Josh Boorman, from SydneyDrinkDriving.com.au. I’m here today to update you on a new drink driving matter that I had only last week at Parramatta Local Court. This matter was quite a serious matter.
High Range DUI Facts
It was a high range drink driving matter. The blood alcohol rating was 0.166 and there was an additional traffic offence attached to this which was a failure to give way when overtaking. Basically, the matter happened on the M4 motor way in Sydney and it occurred in the early hours of the morning around 8am. My client had been out drinking for a number of hours the night before. He was admittedly well-intoxicated, he had gone back to a friend’s place, only had a couple of hours sleep, and then decided to get up, get into his car, and drive home in the early hours of the morning around 8am.
Obviously, the blood alcohol reading 0.166 was an issue of concern in the Court’s eyes and the fact that there was a fail to give way when overtaking offence was seen as an aggravating feature to this drink driving offence. Generally, an aggravating feature is a feature of the actual case or scenario which can increase the chances of risk or injury occurring to people in the general public. Certainly, the second offence attached to the drink drive offence was seen as an aggravating feature.
Prior Traffic Record
My client was only 25 years of age. So he hadn’t been driving all that long, had his licence for about seven years. In that time, he had accumulated about a handful of entries on his traffic history, generally speeding infringements and a red light camera, a couple of other relatively minor traffic infringements but certainly nothing as serious as the high range drink driving offence, which was before the Court.
The Defendants Subjective Features
My client was academically a very bright young man. He had excelled in the workplace. He had done a lot of charity work. He had excelled at university. He was generally a person who held a very good character and I was able to explain to the Court that this was a one-off type of incident that was very much out of character for him.
Lessons from the Traffic Offenders Program
I was able to also explain to the Magistrate and the Court that my client had learned some very valuable life lessons coming away from this incident that had occurred, especially after attending the Traffic Offenders Program, which was the fully approved six-week course run by the Local Police Citizens Youth Club or PCYC. He took a lot of lessons away from this, and in particular, found it quite moving experience to attend the sessions. He said the presentations given by the victims of real-life road trauma had really moved him and really driven home to him how dangerous his actions were on the morning of the offence. So I was able to show the Court that my client had gone through this course. He had learned some very strong lessons coming away from it.
Presented the overall message to the Court
His history obviously showed that it was quite a uncharacteristic sort of behaviour for him. We were also able to tender some strong references from his employer, a family member, and also a charitable organization that he spends some of his spare time volunteering for.
We packaged these all together. I was able to present it to the Court and submit some oral submissions on behalf of my client. For a high range offence, we were able to get him a good result.
The Penalties
For a high range offence, the automatic disqualification period is three (3) years. The minimum disqualification period that the Court has discretion to lower down to 12 months. Certainly, we had to play this matter quite carefully because of the aggravating features involved. But we were able to persuade the Magistrate with the preparation of our case and the oral submissions to the Court to lower his drink driving disqualification period down to the absolute minimum of 12 months.
We also obtained a specific order for the Magistrate to backdate the disqualification period to the time of the offence because we had adjourned the matter for several months for my client to do a traffic offender program and to prepare this case. So all that time that he was off the road leading up to the Court case was taken into consideration as time served under the disqualification period.
My client was extremely happy with the result we got and generally speaking, it’s pretty much the best result he could have hoped for having a blood alcohol rating of 0.166 in the high range category and especially, with a number of aggravating features that were involved in this incident.
Our DUI Lawyers
This is just one example of a drink driving matter that we represented on at Parramatta Local Court. We do attend all of the local courts in and around Sydney, and certainly, if you have been charged with a drink driving or alcohol-related traffic offence, please feel free to give me a call at the office.
I’m happy to have a Free 1st Telephone Consult with you over the phone to give you an idea of the situation you are in, what you can expect when you go to Court. Certainly, if you’d like to get us board to offer you some quality and professional legal representation, and get on board a lawyer who is in court nearly every day representing people on these types of matters, then certainly, we can discuss arranging representation for you.
Your first step, if you haven’t already seen our website, would be to go on to our website, which is SydneyDrinkDriving.com.au. There is a whole heap of information there relating to drink driving and alcohol-related traffic offenses in New South Wales. https://dev.cloudsites.pw/january-2015-parramatta-court-dui-lawyers-high-range-drink-driving/There’s articles, there’s laws, blog posts, videos, and certainly, you will get a better idea of the position that you maybe in by visiting our website.
And like I said, have a look at that, then give us a call and we can discuss the options that you may have in place.
Speak to our DUI Lawyers – Josh Boorman Ph: 1300 941 900
Our DUI Lawyers can be contacted at:
Sydney Drink Driving Lawyers | DUI Solicitors NSW
Email: jboorman@boormanlawyers.com.au
