A THIRD-time drink-driver has been jailed after a magistrate told him his chances of getting a non-custodial sentence “have now evaporated”.
Hayden Paul Browne, 22, was sentenced to three months in prison yesterday, and was denied bail after lodging an appeal against the sentence.
Browne appeared in Ballarat Magistrates Court, where he pleaded guilty to drink driving, driving whilst disqualified, unlicensed driving and two counts of using an unregistered motor vehicle.
After learning that Browne had two prior convictions for driving in a manner dangerous and two for drink driving, magistrate Peter Couzens said jail was the only option.
“For a 22 year old, you’ve got a very very bad record,” he said.
“One has to impose an effective jail term ... there’s just no choice.”
The court heard Browne had been pulled over by police on two separate occasions, the first time just over two weeks after he lost his licence for another drink driving offence.
Browne was a disqualified driver at the time, and was driving an unregistered vehicle.
Police prosecutor Acting Sergeant Ivan Blomeley said that on June 29 this year Browne was pulled over again, just after 4am in Geelong.
He was unlicensed and still driving an unregistered motor vehicle.
When breath tested he blew 0.094.
His vehicle was towed from the scene and impounded for 30 days.
Defence lawyer David Tamanika tried hard to keep his client out of jail, but ultimately was unsuccessful.
Mr Tamanika said Browne worked interstate on a diamond drilling rig, and came back to Ballarat during his time off.
“He instructs he’s not someone who chooses to binge every time he comes back to Victoria,” he said.
“But it was an extremely poor decision (to drive).”
Mr Tamanika urged the court to consider a suspended sentence and a heavy fine.
“It’s something that would sit hanging over his head when he comes back to Victoria,” he said.
After Browne’s sentence was handed down, Mr Tamanika returned to court to lodge an appeal and apply for bail.
But Browne was refused bail and remanded in custody to a date to be fixed.
Mr Couzens deemed him too great a risk of re-offending and failing to appear.