Magistrate Simon Milazzo fined $1000, disqualified from driving after being caught drink driving
A magistrate who was caught driving with almost twice the blood-alcohol limit has lost his licence for seven months and been fined $1000.
A respected magistrate has lost his licence for seven months after being caught driving while almost twice the blood-alcohol limit.
Magistrate Simon Hugh Milazzo was fined $1000 – $100 more than the minimum – and disqualified from driving until November during a District Court hearing.
Police, who had followed Milazzo for a short time, pulled him over on Anzac Hwy at Glenelg North, where he returned a blood-alcohol reading of 0.099 at 10.16pm on April 19.
Milazzo was sentenced in the District Court despite the offence of driving with a prescribed concentration of alcohol being a summary offence usually dealt with in the Magistrates Court.
In sentencing, Judge Geraldine Davison said she would take into account that Milazzo had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.
“I accept that you are a good person with no prior convictions but have had some traffic expiation notices otherwise you have been a good driver in this state and a person of good character,” Judge Davison said.
“I must warn you that to drive whilst you are disqualified is a serious offence from which a term of imprisonment may be imposed.”
Milazzo had his licence disqualified until November 19, 2019, and was ordered to pay court fees of $270, the $160 victims of crime levy and prosecution costs.
A spokeswoman for Chief Magistrate Judge Mary-Louise Hribal said: “Magistrate Milazzo has been a magistrate in the civil section of the Magistrates Court for some years.
“He will continue to hear matters in this jurisdiction.”
Milazzo is not the only member of the judiciary to have been caught drink-driving.
In January 2014, Supreme Court Justice Anne Bampton was disqualified for eight months and fined $1300 for hitting a female cyclist while driving with a blood-alcohol reading of 0.121.
Justice Bampton – who at the time of the crash on November 30, 2013, had been appointed to the Supreme Court but was still a District Court judge – apologised to the court.
In May 2002, District Court judge Neal Hume stood down from the bench after being caught driving 16km/h over the speed limit with a blood-alcohol level of 0.15 in January of that year.
Judge Hume, who spent 17 years as a judge and had an unblemished 40-year driving record, was fined $1000 and disqualified from driving for 15 months.