Nathan Bontoft caught drink driving to pick up daughter

A father has faced court after he approached police while intoxicated and told them he had driven to pick up his daughter.

Less than one year after a man was arrested for drink driving while on his way to pick up his daughter, he was caught driving with methylamphetamine in his system, a court has heard.

Marsden dad Nathan Bontoft, 30, appeared in Ipswich Magistrates Court on Tuesday March 29, charged with one count of driving while over the middle alcohol limit and one count of driving while a relevant drug was present in his saliva.

He pleaded guilty to both charges, the first of which occurred at Goodna on December 23, 2020 and the second of which occurred at Crestmead on October 23 last year.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Nanette Green told the court Bontoft was arrested for drug driving about 8.40pm after police conducted a random breath test and discovered methylamphetamine in his saliva.

“When asked, the defendant stated that he consumed a few puffs on a pipe containing ice the previous day,” she said.

The earlier offence of drink driving was exposed when police were called to a Goodna address in relation to a disturbance and arrived to find Bontoft standing next to a car with its windows down.

Snr-Constable Green said Bontoft approached police, who noticed he was unsteady on his feet, struggling to keep his eyes open, and omitting a strong smell of liquor.

Upon questioning, he admitted he had driven in his affected state to collect his daughter and bring her home.

Police conducted a roadside breath test, which showed his blood alcohol concentration was 0.141g.

The court heard Bontoft had both a criminal and traffic history but his offending was “sporadic”.

The Logan dad, who appeared in court on Tuesday unrepresented, told Magistrate David Shepherd he had been clean from drugs for nearly 10 days.

He said he had a long history of drug use and suffered mental health issues, but he was recently connected with a drug and alcohol counsellor and was making progress in his recovery.

Mr Shepherd said that methylamphetamine was probably “one of the biggest downfalls” he was going to face.

He took into account Bontoft’s plea of guilty, his personal circumstances, and his addiction issues when deciding an appropriate penalty.

“Picking your daughter up with a reading of 0.14 …,” Mr Shepherd said.

“You can’t imagine how you would have tried to deal with an incident where if you had picked her up and driven off and there’d been some sort of an accident, how do you think you’d feel about that?

“And there’s yourself to think about as well.”

Mr Shepherd ordered Bontoft be supervised by an authorised corrective services officer for 18 months.

The Logan dad was disqualified from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for a period of seven months for drink driving and three months for drug driving.

Convictions were recorded.