Simon Best gets jail sentence for repeat disqualified driving

A Central Queensland labourer claims he was “just trying to get some bloody tucker” when he drove while disqualified for the fourth time.

Simon Grady Best faced Yeppoon Magistrates Court on January 18.

A Central Queensland labourer with a “terrible history” of committing disqualified driving offences, has been given a jail sentence.

Simon Grady Best, 41, pleaded guilty in Yeppoon Magistrates Court on January 18 to disqualified driving.

The court heard Best, who works in the building industry, was busted driving at Emu Park on December 24 last year.

He was driving “to the shops” to get food at the time.

The court heard that Best had a “terrible history of committing this offence.”

In July 2021, Best was convicted of three disqualified driving offences.

For the first of those offences he was fined $1000, for the second he was placed on probation for 12 months, and for the third he was given four months’ jail, suspended for two years.

Simon Grady Best.

For this latest offence, police prosecutor Sergeant Darrell Dalton submitted a term of imprisonment was within range.

A self-represented Best said he worked for CJ Homes building houses and he explained the reason for his offending on Christmas Eve.

“Everyone had gone away for holidays - I’d been trying to get to Drakes all day to get some food in the house,” he said.

“Me (sic) lift hadn’t showed up, it was late in the afternoon I realised that Drakes had closed earlier.

“And literally, I had tea bags in my house - that was the only thing I had in there.

“And I was just trying to get myself some bloody tucker - not saying it (driving) was the right thing, Your Honour.”

Acting Magistrate Stephen Byrne told Best it “clearly wasn’t” the right thing to do and he agreed with the prosecution that a term of imprisonment was within range.

Mr Byrne sentenced Best to five months’ jail with immediate parole and disqualified him from driving for two years.