By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A MAN caught drink-driving at three times the legal limit in Berwick was found driving again by police an hour later.
Soul Rene De Valence, 40, pleaded guilty to two drink-driving charges after recording blood-alcohol readings of 0.156 and 0.130 on 19 September.
When first pulled over in Bridgewater Boulevard about 5.43pm he told police he drank only four light beers at a local football game that afternoon, a court was told.
Just after 6pm he furnished a blood-alcohol sample at Narre Warren police station and was issued with a section-51 notice that suspended him from driving on the spot.
At 7pm, police recognised him driving up onto a grass reserve on Soldiers Road and he was breath-tested again.
Magistrate Gerard Bryant labelled De Valence’s acts as “monumentally stupid” during a hearing at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 15 February.
“What were you thinking when you went from the police station and drove?”
“I wasn’t,” the accused replied.
De Valence said he’d underestimated the amount he had drunk while watching an AFL final on TV the night before.
Mr Bryant said the accused would have been “lucky to be alive” drinking to such excess.
“That would be (a blood-alcohol reading) of about 0.3.”
De Valance argued he was “not a big drinker” but had been undergoing personal difficulties at the time.
“It’s the stupidest thing I’ve done in my life.”
Mr Bryant suspended De Valence’s licence for 18 months, backdated to the section-51 notice in September.
He noted the accused was lucky that the first drink-driving charge wasn’t counted as a prior conviction.
Otherwise, the second drink-driving offence would have led to a 20-month licence suspension as a mandatory minimum.
De Valence was also fined $400 and ordered to attend a road trauma awareness seminar.
Mr Bryant noted the accused would initially have an interlock condition on his licence, with a 0.00 blood-alcohol limit for the first three years.
“What you did was dangerous and reckless,” Mr Bryant said.
“There’s really no justification… you only have yourself to blame.”
