Driver Avoids Conviction after case reduced from High Range to Low Range PCA

A driver who registered a high-range blood alcohol reading of 0.163 avoided a conviction in Downing Centre Local Court after his reading was later reduced to 0.78.

The driver was pulled-over for a roadside random breath test near the Sydney CBD where he registered a positive reading.

He was later taken to the police station where he blew a high-range reading of 0.163.

He informed our lawyers that he had finished drinking around 15 to 20 minutes before being pulled over and that the breath analysis at the police station occurred around 20 to 30 minutes thereafter.

We advised him that his blood alcohol concentration at the time of driving may have been significantly less than when his breath was later analysed at the police station.

We then obtained police records of his roadside breath test that suggested his reading was in the mid-range when first pulled-over.

We then obtained an expert pharmacological report which took a range of factors into account, including his weight, age, the number and type of drinks he consumed, the time he started and finished drinking and what he ate during the day.

The report suggested that he was likely to have been in the low-range when he was driving.

Police initially refused to lower the reading from high-range drink driving to low-range drink driving. A ‘defended hearing’ date was then set down.

However, our defence team managed to persuade police to accept the lower charge in the days leading up to the hearing.

The Presiding Magistrate was then persuaded to give our client a ‘section 10 bond’, which means that he avoids a conviction altogether and gets his licence back.

He can now re-commence his employment as a truck driver and take care of his family.