Zachary Charles Ahern, 23, of Cully Road, Huntley was on his way home at 1.50am on New Year’s Day when he was stopped by police in Redfern Street, Cowra.

Police had seen the white four-wheel drive Ahern was driving swerving slightly before they stopped him for a random breath test. 

He was arrested and a breath analysis returned a mid-range reading of 0.139.

On Monday, magistrate David Day fined Ahern $880 and disqualified him from driving for three months.

The disqualification is an added ban for Ahern, who has been suspended from driving since he was stopped by police on January 1.

“It was a random breath test luckily, Mr Ahern was detected and taken off the road because he intended to drive from Cowra to the Orange area and would have exposed people to potential danger,” Mr Day said.

“His conversation with the police suggests he was aware that he was over [the limit].”

Mr Day said he would take into account Ahern’s prior good character and the driving suspension Ahern had been given by police. 

Ahern was represented in court by solicitor Mick Madden who handed up character testimonies to Mr Day.

“In regards to the facts I’m instructed that while stopped by police there was a conversation ad he admitted to drinking,” Mr Madden said.

Despite police facts quoting Ahern as saying there had been a “big fight at the dam”, Mr Madden said his client had not left the dam because of a fight, but because of a migraine.

“He stopped drinking around 10pm because he started to think he was getting a migraine,” Mr Madden said.

“That migraine got worse to where he felt he had to get away from there because there were people drinking.”

Mr Madden said the reading was in the high range of a mid-range reading and Ahern has since completed the traffic offenders intervention program.

“He was still a fair way, a long way over the limit,” he said.