Drink Driving

Driving with a prescribed concentration of alcohol, namely 0.082.

Drink driving is a common term used to cover the two offences which relate to drinking and driving. Driving Under the Influence (DUI) and exceeding the Prescribed Concentration of Alcohol in the blood (PCA).

It is an offence to consume more than a specific amount of alcohol and drive a vehicle and, if found guilty of drink driving, you may be disqualified from holding a driver’s licence for up to a period of 3 years. Our criminal lawyers at Caldicott Lawyers are experts all driving matters and specifically in drink driving matters.

The maximum penalty the Court may impose varies depending on your blood alcohol reading and whether or not you have committed this offence before. If your blood alcohol reading was between 0.05 grams and 0.079 grams, the following penalties apply: First Offence $1,100 Automatic disqualification of not less than 3 months 4 incurred Second Offence $1,100 Automatic disqualification of not less than 6 months 4 incurred Third Offence $1,100 Automatic disqualification of not less than 9 months 4 incurred If your blood alcohol reading was between 0.08 grams and 0.149 grams, the following penalties apply: First Offence $1,300 Automatic disqualification of not less than 6 months 5 incurred Second Offence $1,600 Automatic disqualification of not less than 1 year 5 incurred Third Offence $2,200 Automatic disqualification of not less than 2 years 5 incurred If your blood alcohol reading was above 0.15 grams, the following penalties apply: First Offence $1,600 Automatic disqualification of not less than 1 year 6 incurred Second Offence $2,400 Automatic disqualification of not less than 3 years 6 incurred Third Offence $2,900 Automatic disqualification of not less than 3 years 6 incurred It may be possible to reduce these penalties if the offence was trifling.

The matter was resolved by way of entering a guilty plea to one count of PCA and submissions were made on the client’s behalf. James Caldicott made submissions on the client’s behalf and His Honour indicated from the outset that he would be imposing the minimum penalty of six months disqualification. The Magistrate convicted the client of the offence and disqualified the client for a further two months, fined them the sum of $900.00 for the offence and also noted that there was a $1,043.30 car impounding fee. There was also Court costs, prosecution fee and victim of crime levy to be paid associated with this matter.

The client attended a night club with his girlfriend and stated that he had four or five alcoholic beverages between the hours of 10.00pm and 4.45am, he was pulled over by police and provided a breath analysis which recorded a reading of 0.082. His subsequent blood test results at 6.00am indicated a blood concentration of 0.056.