Section 10 for Mid-Range PCA Reading 0.116

Last week Astor Legal appeared at Sutherland Local Court on behalf of our 39-year-old client. Our client was a member of the Australian Navy and had served for over 20 years.

In the lead up to the offence, he had spent 3 years on a Navy ship, away from his family. Upon his return, he was only able to stay with them for a short period of time before he was offered a promotion – however this required him to undertake an intensive course and spent a further 3 months away from his family.

Unfortunately, the combination of these factors culminated in him suffering from mental health issues and a lapse in judgement. He had consumed a number of alcoholic drinks one evening and then chose to get behind the wheel.

He was stopped by police due to a random breath test (RBT). Following this he registered a blood alcohol reading of 0.116. He was charged with mid-range PCA and faced a lengthy disqualification period.

He came to us after being told by a number of other drink driving lawyers that a criminal conviction and disqualification period was inevitable given the high reading.

Our Sutherland Criminal Lawyers took a different view.

We immediately got to work obtaining character references from the Navy and our client’s wife. These set out that he had been bestowed with the Australia Day Medallion – a very rare honour. They also set out his need for a licence and need to be conviction free. We also had our client complete a traffic offenders program and prepare an apology letter.

At Sutherland Local Court we made submissions seeking a conditional release order without conviction.

Despite the Magistrate noting the high reading and making clear that she would usually record a conviction, Her Honour was persuaded to sentence him pursuant to Section 10 for Mid-Range Drink Driving.

This meant that he did not suffer any disqualification period and no criminal conviction was recorded. Our client and his colleagues were overjoyed with the result.