By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A DRUNKEN man crashed his car into a tree on a nature strip after “forgetting” to turn around a roundabout.
Simon Ashleigh Sutherland wrote off his $20,000 car while he was driving at more than three times the legal blood-alcohol limit in Meadowlands Way, Berwick, in the early hours of 22 February 2015.
Police discovered the extensively damaged car abandoned at 4.15am and visited Sutherland at his Berwick home more than a kilometre away.
Sutherland, who was unable to recall how much beer and spirits he’d had that night, returned a blood-alcohol reading of 0.160 at 5.59am.
He told police he had driven his car into a roundabout and “forgot to turn left”, police prosecutor Senior Constable Tracey Arnold told the court.
Sutherland told police he’d had a marital fight but it was “no excuse”.
He was served with a section-51 notice that suspended his licence on the spot.
Defence lawyer David Dribbin said his client had two prior drink-driving offences 20 years ago when he was “young and stupid”.
“Twenty years later and he’s still stupid,” Mr Dribbin told the court.
Mr Dribbin said Sutherland had intended to sleep over at a friend’s place after a barbecue, however an argument led him to make “that stupid decision to drive”.
“He’s had 12 months to reflect on that. Twelve months of taking two buses, a train and a four-kilometre walk to and from work.
“He’s lost 20 kilograms of weight in the last 12 months.”
As a “sobering reminder”, Sutherland has been unable to recover the cost of his broken car from his insurer, Mr Dribbin said.
Magistrate Gerard Bryant said Sutherland was fortunate not to have inflicted significant injury or death.
“Could you just imagine how you’d live with yourself if someone was injured or killed due to your drink-driving?”
Mr Bryant noted it was Sutherland’s third drink-driving offence, and possible jail would result from a fourth.
Sutherland lost his licence for two years backdated to February last year, and was ordered to complete a drink-driving education course and to donate $1500 to the court’s charitable fund.
