Blacktown Mid Range Drink Driving Case Study: 0.089, Birthday Drinks End in an 18-Month CRO and No Conviction (NSW)

Hey, it's Josh Boorman here from Boorman Lawyers. I'm just outside Blacktown Local Court here on a mid-range drink driving uh offence today where the blood alcohol reading was 0.089. So, it's just crept into the mid-range category there given the uh mid-range category in New South Wales is between 0.080 through to 0.15. So, it's at the bottom end. Um this matter before the court today was a relatively stock standard type of drink driving offence. Um there was nothing aggravated about the matter. Um my client it was the day of his birthday.

He'd finished work. Some friends had invited him over to their place uh for a surprise. And the surprise was that uh some of his friends from Melbourne uh had unexpectedly come up and and and wanted to celebrate with his birthday. Um he obliged and he went over and he ended up consuming two to three glasses of full strength beer um between about 7:00 p.m. at night through to uh 9:30 p.m. He had some prior obligations of getting home that night because um he had prearranged a video call with his family back home in India because they'd uh organised a birthday cake to be sent to his place and he was going to go back, jump on the video call, cut the cake, and celebrate with his family over the video call.

So, he did make that foolish decision of getting into the car to drive home. He self-assessed his sobriety. He was of the view that he felt fine, unaffected by the um two to three glasses of beer that he consumed earlier. So, he jumped into the car and drove home. Now, he was pulled over for the purpose of a random breath test or a stationary random breath test set up site. Um and uh so, it wasn't his manner of driving. he wasn't speeding, driving erratically. Uh there was certainly no collision, uh nothing sinister or of that nature.

Um he was pulled over, it was a positive reading, and um a final BAC reading of 0.089 was recorded. So, he was charged with middle-range drink driving. It was the first offence for him. He has a very He has no prior criminal record. He has very good traffic record with only one more minor speeding offence uh on his record, which attracted a one demerit point, and that was about 12 months ago. So, a very good record, absolutely nothing aggravated about the matter. The reading was towards the lower end of the middle-range category.

Um and he did all the right things since the offence occurred. He did the Traffic Offenders Program. He disclosed the matter to um He works two jobs. He um One job is as a civil engineer draftsman uh for a company, and he works Monday to Friday 9:00 to 5:00 in that job. He disclosed the matter to his employer and got a good strong letter of support from his employer. He has found himself over the last um couple of years in a bit of financial difficulty. He ended up borrowing about $18,000 worth of loans to support his family back home in India and help them uh fix up their home.

So, um uh he has been taking on a second job as an Uber driver at nighttime and on weekends. And we were able to obviously show the court um receipts from those Uber uh payments over the last few months, and obviously it stopped um when this offence occurred because when the offence occurred, his licence was suspended at the time. So, that has significantly reduced his um income and his ability to pay back those loans, it has left him in quite a um a dire financial situation.

Um so, getting back on the road was uh incredibly important to him. Today, um we pushed for a non-conviction order under section [unclear: '91B' in the captions], but that came with a uh good behaviour bond. He's got to be good behaviour for 18 months. Cannot break the law during that period of time. He um uh it means he's not convicted. He can resume his driving abilities. He's not subject to an alcohol interlock order. And there was no fine forthcoming. So, a very very outcome good outcome today. Uh very positive.

It was certainly what my client was hoping for. Um as I uh have told him all along, there's certainly no guarantees um in in getting a non-conviction order. Um Ultimately, the decision is in the hands of the court. But what is in our control is the um steps he can take since the incident occurred, the preparation, the letters of support, the traffic program, any other material that we are able to rely upon to push forward a persuasive case for the court to um uh give our client maximum level level of leniency.

So, certainly the facts and his good traffic record were were big. Um uh uh points that actually worked in his favour in relation to this matter. Um but all the supplementary subjective material that we presented were also persuasive in allowing the court to use its discretion not to record a conviction on this occasion. So, he's a a very very relieved client. I He's a very good man. He's a person of good character. Supports his family. Works hard. And I don't think um we'll ever see him back before the court making such a a foolish mistake ever again in the future.

So, thanks for tuning in. Uh it's Boorman Lawyers here at Blacktown Local Court in Western Sydney.