A DRUNK driver was stopped by two stop signs in Byng Street, but not in the conventional manner.
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Dion Steven Miller careered his vehicle through the intersection of Spring and Byng streets, hitting two stop signs along the way, at 3.25am on March 30.
The 26-year-old, with an “extensive history of traffic infringements,” appeared before Orange Local Court on Thursday charged with mid-range drink-driving.
His solicitor Mason Manwaring said his client was not the driver of the vehicle when the car was spotted earlier in the night with no number plates doing circle work in Newman Park in March Street.
“He found out his car had been used so he thought he would drive it home,” Mr Manwaring said.
Police facts said Miller told officers he had drunk seven vodkas at the Royal Hotel before he drove.
Police said the car had been revving hard enough to wake residents as the car passed and police had received several complaints.
Witnesses at the scene of the collision told officers Miller tried to start the car, stalled it, then re-started it and drove into the driveway of his home in Hawkins Lane.
But he did not stop there and attempted to run away from police officers who were hot on his tail.
He hid in a garden shed in a Spring Street home.
He told officers he knew he had done the wrong thing when they finally caught up with him.
“I hit the street signs because I couldn’t see through the windscreen because it was fogged up,” he said.
“I am so against drink-drivers, I don’t know why I did it.”
Mr Manwaring said his client was cooperative with police after they caught him and had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.
The magistrate, Terry Lucas, said Miller was lucky the stop sign had not been a person.
He fined Miller $1400 and disqualified him from driving for eight months.