5 Gympie benders that did not end well
From smashing a vending machine with a sledgehammer to dancing in front of police in McDonald’s in the early hours of the morning these people should have stayed home.
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Drank a 4 pack of JD then drove to the cop station
A GYMPIE business owner was fined $800 and lost his license after downing a four-pack of Jack Daniels and then driving to the police station.
On January 19, Samuel Lawrenson Wilson, who owns Sam's Car Detailing, downed a four a four-pack of Jack Daniels after a family dispute that involved police.
Later that night the police called and asked him to come to the station.
Wilson told the court he drove himself there after drinking without thinking about it.
Police noticed he was glassy-eyed and slurring his speech; a breath test returned a reading of 0.174 and he was arrested.
Drunk mechanic attacks vending machine with sledgehammer
A COOLOOLA Cove man who tried to "have a conversation" with a vending machine before smashing it with a sledgehammer was fined $400 in Gympie Magistrates Court this week.
Piriniha Te Whenua Kelly, 41, pleaded guilty to wilfully damaging property at Rainbow Beach Car Wash on October 19 last year.
Police prosecutor Lisa Manns said CCTV footage showed an intoxicated Kelly approach a vending machine at the car wash, "have a conversation with it", and then kick and punch it before leaving.
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He later returned with a sledgehammer and changed his clothes to try to hide his identity, but did not change his shoes.
He smashed the vending machine with the sledgehammer, causing $391 of damage, the court heard.
He remembered playing music and drinking at a friend's party, going to a pub and drinking a significant amount before the incident.
Drunk mum who ran amok at Gympie Maccas
A MOTHER-OF-THREE who made a nuisance of herself by dancing drunkenly and blocking the entrance to the Gympie McDonald's in the wee hours of the morning.
Corelle Sybenga, 38, pleaded guilty to contravening a move-on direction and being a public nuisance in Gympie Magistrates Court last week.
Just before 1am on March 13, police were called to a disturbance at McDonald's, where they found Sybenga drunk, dancing, and doing the splits to block the entrance.
Police prosecutor Lisa Manns said Sybenga was "heavily" drunk and police told her to move on, and said she was not to come within 620m of the McDonald's for six hours.
At 1:55am police were called to River Road following reports of a woman running in the street.
Police found Sybenga lying on the footpath 70m from the McDonald's, with an employee trying to help her.
She had an open bottle of vodka lying beside her, and refused to stand up or grab her belongings when police asked her to move.
20yo dad downs bottle of Wild Turkey in Gympie, ends up in Noosa and punches cop in face
A MAN who "blacked out" after drinking almost an entire litre of Wild Turkey told the Gympie Magistrates Court he did not remember punching a police officer or jumping into an unknown bystander's car.
Branden Radford Powell, 20, was in court this week charged with assaulting a police officer, being a public nuisance offence and contravening a requirement by failing to appear.
Police prosecutor Lisa Manns said police were called to the Noosaville Mcdonald's on March 5, after a fight broke out in the car park and one of the men involved, Powell, had jumped into the passenger seat of a stranger's car thinking it was his friend's.
The car belonged to a woman who was waiting for her son to finish a shift at the Mcdonald's and Powell was "dragged" out of the car by his friends.
When police arrived he was put in a police car, but after kicking and screaming he managed to leap out and punch an officer in the face.
Powell told Magistrate Chris Callaghan he was with a family friend at North Deep Creek that night when he drank "75 per cent" of a litre bottle of Wild Turkey within in an hour, and then spoke to his father, after not speaking to him for a long time.
"That's the last thing that I remember," he said.
"I'm pretty certain that after I spoke to my dad on the phone I went into psychosis and blacked out because somehow I ended up in Noosa."
Drove almost four times the limit, wiped out own bumper
Kevin Clifton John Taylor, 37, was charged with drink driving after being caught at almost four times the legal limit.
On June 20 Taylor hit a kerb while driving in a Gympie street; causing his front bumper to fall off and police arrived at the scene to find him and his elderly parents organising a tow truck.
Taylor, a father of three and cabinet-maker, was breathalysed and caught with a blood-alcohol level in the high range, at 0.196.
He was fined $1000 and disqualified from driving for nine months.
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