Alexander Bullard, aged 37, of Houston, Texas, pleaded guilty to the charge ‘Drive with high range Prescribed Concentration of Alcohol (PCA)’.

At about 12.40am on Sunday, December 2, 2018, police were parked in Mortimer Street, Mudgee, when they observed a vehicle enter the roundabout at the intersection with Church Street on the incorrect side of the road. They followed the car as it continued south along the wrong side of Church Street, before doing almost a full circle of the roundabout at the Gladstone Street intersection and entering the BP service station.

Officers noted that Bullard was clearly under the influence of alcohol and slumped in the driver’s seat when they spoke with him. The roadside breath test was positive for alcohol and he was taken to Mudgee Police Station where a breath analysis of 0.163 was recorded.

Bullard’s solicitor, Richard Wise, told the court that his client had been drinking at a wedding that day and made the decision to move the car from where it was parked when police spotted him.

Magistrate David Day, upon reading the police facts submitted to the court, noted that “a driver of left-hand-drive vehicles was clearly completely befuddled by our right-hand-drive cars”.

However, sentencing Bullard for the incident proved to be something of a conundrum with Mr Wise confirming that the defendant would be leaving the country to return to the United States within the next few weeks.

“Well I can’t disqualify his Texas licence,” Magistrate Day said, given his lack of “extraterritorial” authority. And added, “any community-based order is irrelevant if he’s leaving the country”.

Furthermore, the fitting of an interlock device to an offender’s vehicle is mandatory for high range drink driving charges, but if this isn’t possible a lengthy disqualification period substitutes. Bullard was disqualified for three years in NSW and fined $1100.