A METAL shovel handle modified with electrical tape to look cool has earned its owner a $1100 fine and a court conviction.
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Charles Buni, 20 of Wakefield Street, did not attend Orange Local Court on Monday and was sentenced in his absence.
Police pulled over Buni’s grey Mazda 3 on Peisley Street at about 11.30pm on September 24 and searched the vehicle where they found the 40-centimetre heavy metal bar between the driver’s seat and centre console.
Police said Buni admitted it was his and he had modified it with the tape “to make it look cool”.
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Hefty fine
ALSO absent from court to face his charges was Simon Geoffrey Monti Otto.
The 28-year-old of McLachlan Street was due to face a charge of mid-range PCA after he blew 0.146 on September 30.
Police said officers pulled over his red Renault Megane at 3am on Burrendong Way for a random breath test.
He told police he had drunk up to six glasses of vodka and soda between 10pm and 1am.
Noting it was close to a high-range reading, magistrate David Day fined him $1100 and disqualified him for eight months.
Cancelled learner
LA Perouse man Brody Lawrence Horsfield also came under police notice for driving above the legal alcohol limit.
Horsfield, 20 of Murrong Place, was pulled over on the Northern Distributor Road on his way home from Dubbo just before 10pm during Operation Slowdown.
Police said he registered 0.048, a special range reading given he was a learner driver.
He did not appear in court and was fined $330 and disqualified for three months for the alcohol charge, plus another $550 and a 12-month suspension for driving as a cancelled learner.
Cannabis charge
DRIVING under the influence of drugs has brought a 35-year-old Glenroi Avenue man undone.
Mr Day fined Jon Michael-Fraser Jones $330 in his absence and disqualified him for three months.
He also fined him $550 and disqualified him for 12 months for driving unlicensed.
Police said Jones’s white Holden Commodore was pulled over for a random drug test just after 1am on September 2 and he tested positive to cannabis and methylamphetamine.
He had already been disqualified in August.
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