John Leslie Walsh, of Ocean Avenue, pleaded guilty to driving with a middle-range PCA. He was convicted, fined $1000 and disqualified from driving for six months. He lodged an appeal that will be heard at Bega District Court on October 20.

Police facts state that Walsh was stopped by a police mobile radar and breath test unit in Surf Beach at 1.47am on July 12.

The officers noticed the smell of intoxicating liquor coming from the car, and a passive preliminary test indicated the presence of alcohol in Walsh’s system.

A secondary test was positive to alcohol and he was arrested and taken to Batemans Bay Police Station. 

A breath analysis taken at 2.20am returned a reading of 0.177.

Walsh admitted he drank four 375ml bottles of VB and three medium-sized glasses of red wine between 7pm and midnight.

Police formed the opinion he was slightly affected by alcohol.

The court heard that Walsh had been licensed since 1974 and only had speeding tickets from 2006, 2009 and 2010 on his record.

Many positive references were submitted to the court.

However, Magistrate Doug Dick said that this was a major offence and could he only reduce the disqualification to six months.