A TEN-time drink-driver has been jailed after he crashed his car into another vehicle, fled the scene and then refused to be breath-tested.
Bradley Wilson, 35, appeared in the Ballarat Magistrates Court yesterday, where he was sentenced to 10 months in prison and disqualified from driving for five years.
The court heard Wilson had been driving his mother’s unregistered Toyota Camry in Sebastopol on December 11, 2011, when he turned a corner and crashed into blue Holden Commodore coming the other way.
After stopping briefly, Wilson drove the car home without rendering assistance or exchanging details, and removed the number plates.
Police searched the area and found the damaged Camry parked in a driveway nearby.
When officers knocked on the door, Wilson took a preliminary breath-test and was found to have alcohol in his system, but then refused to have an evidentiary test.
Police prosecutor Senior Constable Michelle Kilburn said Wilson was a disqualified driver at the time, having lost his licence for five years in 2009.
Wilson told police: “It’s just ridiculous. I’ve been hanging on a long time to get my licence back”.
As to why he left the crash scene, “it wasn’t my fault”, he said. “He (the victim) was the one that cleaned me up.”
Wilson also faced court over two other driving matters from May this year. Both times he was caught driving an unregistered vehicle while he was disqualified.
On the second occasion the car was also carrying fake number plates, had flat tyres and he wasn’t wearing a seat belt.
Defence lawyer David Tamanika acknowledged his client’s poor history, which included nine-drink driving offences and 17 for driving while disqualified or unlicensed.
“He’ll climb behind the wheel of a car and it’s only once he’s been pulled over that hindsight kicks in,” Mr Tamanika said.
“However the oddity in his priors is that they only started in the 2000s.”
Magistrate Peter Couzens reflected on Wilson’s past.
“You have a terrible driving record,” he said. “These are very serious offences in themselves, aggravated by a history of multiple offences.”
Wilson pleaded guilty to 15 driving offences. He was also fined $1400.
