A driver who recorded a breath analysis of 0.177, had his bid to escape conviction for the matter denied in Mudgee Local Court on Wednesday.
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Robert Andrew Wilson, aged 44, of Kaludabah Road, Cullenbone, was fined $550 and disqualified for five months followed by a 24-month interlock period.
At about 11.25pm on Friday, March 15, 2019, Wilson was stopped for a random breath test on the Castlereagh Highway, approximately two kilometres north of the Lower Piambong Road intersection.
He returned a positive result for alcohol and was taken to Mudgee Police Station where the high-range reading was recorded.
Wilson admitted to drinking five schooners of full-strength beer throughout the evening.
His barrister, Mr Clark, told the court that his client didn't intend on driving but he received a call about a piece of earthmoving equipment that was supposed to be delivered the next morning was arriving that night.
And added that there was nothing in his client's driving that brought him to the attention of police, but he admitted he shouldn't have been driving at that level and he has since completed the Traffic Offenders Program.
Mr Clark asked the court that Wilson be sentenced without a criminal conviction being recorded, however - in an admission that this was unlikely - he said that this was only the second time in his career that he's called for this course of action for a high-range charge.
Magistrate David Day said that this would only be appropriate in exceptional circumstances, but there's "nothing unusual" about these circumstances. And that most drink driving charges are committed "to avoid personal inconvenience, because they've missed the last taxi".
"He runs the business [for the earthmoving equipment], so I suppose it is personal inconvenience," he continued. Before turning his attention to the potential danger of the defendant's actions.
"It was lucky he was detected, at 0.177 he was an accident waiting to happen," his honour said. "He should've known he was affected and I suspect he did."