A stationary roadside breath test site set up by Traffic and Highway Patrol on Bathurst Road resulted in a mid-range drink driver being caught in February.
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Allan Patrick Weeks, 48, of Maple Avenue, was sentenced in Orange Local Court last Monday where he was fined $880 and his driver’s licence was disqualified for five months.
According to police facts, Weeks was stopped at the roadside breath test at 1.22pm on February 17 and initially did not believe he was over the limit.
Police said he told them, “how could it be positive, I only had one beer, your device must be faulty”.
Despite police assurances that the device was not faulty he became agitated so another alcolizer device was used and the second test also returned a positive result.
Weeks was arrested and taken to Orange Police Station where a breath analysis returned a mid-range reading of 0.117.
As a result his licence was confiscated and suspended.
Weeks maintained that the only had one beer at 12.20pm but later said he had consumed alcohol the previous evening.
Weeks was represented in court by solicitor Mason Manwaring who said his client had completed the Traffic Offenders Intervention Program and his driving history only had two matters, one from 2016 and the other from 1998.
Magistrate David Day noted that there was nothing about Weeks’ driving that led to him being stopped and that police suspended his licence at the time.
“It was Mr Weeks first offence, he has a reasonably good record for a person who has been driving for quite some time,” Mr Day said.
However, he said everyone’s driving is affected when they have a blood alcohol level of 0.1.
In the other drink driving matter, Samuel Robert Carey, 45, of Glasson Drive, was fined $330 and his licence was disqualified for three months for low-range drink driving in Orange Local Court last Monday.
Carey had a blood alcohol reading of 0.051 and represented himself in court.
He was caught drink driving at 7.35pm on February 8 following a crash at a T-intersection.
Carey had been travelling east along Margaret Street in a black Toyota Corolla sedan when he hit the side of a Mitsubishi four-wheel-drive that was travelling north on Peisley Street.
No one was injured and Weeks said he had two alcoholic drinks between 4.30pm and the time of the crash.