A 21-YEAR-OLD Catalina man caught drink-driving for the second time will be off the road for three years and will undertake community service after appearing in Batemans Bay Local Court last Monday.
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Joseph Gordon Robinson, of Albatross Road, pleaded guilty to high-range drink-driving and driving without carrying a driver’s licence.
Police facts state Robinson was seen driving a Ford Courier ute south along the Princes Highway south of Benandarah at 12.40am on March 2.
The ute was seen straddling the white line separating the main lane with the overtaking lane, so police did a u-turn and followed him, and noticed he was veering over the centre line of the road.
They stopped Robinson near the Liberty petrol station
at Cullendulla, and noted that he had two male passengers with him.
The officers noted that Robinson’s speech was slurred, he was swaying and unsteady on his feet and that he smelt strongly of intoxicating liquor.
They asked him for his driver’s licence and he told them he had lost it along with his wallet two weeks before, and had not sought to get a replacement.
He told them he drank six 375ml cans of Jack Daniels and cola earlier that night.
His breath test was positive.
He was arrested and underwent a breath analysis at the Batemans Bay Police station, returning a reading of 0.177.
“He had been drinking heavily at a party and one of the people at the party was concerned for their girlfriend, and this led to his decision to drive, so he could take him to meet her,” Robinson’s defence counsel Peter Ryan said in court.
“He accepts that his judgement was atrocious and has taken the consequences on board.
“He has been seeing a drug and alcohol counsellor and he understands that he will be off the road for quite some time.”
The court heard Robinson had been caught drink-driving in 2011, and Magistrate Geraldine Beattie was outraged he had been caught again.
“You have done the serious traffic offender program before so you know the consequences and you still made the decision to drive,” she said.
“You’ve clearly got issues with alcohol, but to your credit you are doing something about it.”
As well as the three-year disqualification, Robinson was ordered to perform 225 hours of community service and was convicted and fined $150.
