Wallace had parked his car in the car park and had intended to sleep there, Orange Local Court heard on Thursday, but at 3.20am he decided he needed something to eat.

It was not the first time, the 32-year-old had been caught drink-driving and this time, he told police he had only drank water but his water had been spiked, police facts said. 

It was a staff member in the drive-though who alerted police to the drunk driver who had pulled up in the waiting bay of the Bathurst Road restaurant. 

When police arrived the car was running and the driver asked officers: “What are you doing? I’m having a sleep.”

“I just drove through the drive-through and got something to eat,” he said. 

The Perthville resident’s solicitor Tim Dalla said the charge was the third offence of a similar nature committed by his client but the last was outside the five year period, where the penalty could be higher. 

“He did all the right things but in the 11th hour he stupidly made the decision to then drive,” Mr Dalla said. 

Wallace had entered an early guilty plea and had a “high need for his licence in relation to his employment”, Mr Dalla said. 

“The offence is in the bottom end of the scale ... given the distance travelled and the speed,” he said. 

“It should not be seen as him deliberately flouting the law.”

Magistrate, Terry Lucas, said he accepted the fact Wallace drove a short distance, but said regardless he was driving with a prescribed concentration of alcohol of 0.189. 

“I could disqualify you from driving for three years,” he said. 

He instead disqualified him for 12 months and fined him $2000.