A trip to McDonald's the morning after a drinking session has resulted in a Goulburn man losing his licence for one month.
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Robert James Collins, 50, of Clifford Street Goulburn, pleaded guilty to low range drink driving.
The Goulburn Local Court heard on August 12 that Collins was pulled over by police for a Random Breath Test on Citizen Street, on May 31. He returned a blood alcohol concentration of 0.065. Collins had consumed 12 Victoria Bitter beers between 2:30pm and 12:30am the night before. The court heard he had not eaten since he started drinking and had decided to drive to McDonald's for breakfast the next morning.
Solicitor Burney urged the Magistrate to be lenient on his client. He said the impact of a licence disqualification would be quite severe for Collins and his partner.
He said his client's wife had cancer and Collins was required to drive her to the Southern Highlands for treatment. Mr Burney said Collins also needed regular medical check ups. He referred to a doctor's report presented to the court. The report stated that 41 per cent of Collins' whole body was impaired due to work related injuries.
Mr Burney said his client had "not touched a drop of alcohol" since May and had started taking medication for alcoholism.
He said Collins was "adamant he did not feel he was incapable of driving" that morning.
"If he had waited half an hour to an hour later, he might have come under [the limit]," Mr Burney said.
The police prosecutor brought Collins' previous PCA offences, which included a mid-range drink driving charge, to the attention of the court.
Magistrate Geraldine Beattie took Collins' early guilty plea and medical situation into account.
"Your family needs you to have a licence," she said.
The Magistrate said drink driving was a very serious offence with a big impact on the community. She said at a reading of 0.05 the chance of an accident was doubled.
"You knew you'd drunk all that beer the previous night and you still chose to drive for convenience," Magistrate Beattie said.
Collins received a $1200 fine and was disqualified from driving for one month.
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