Named: Warwick drink or drug drivers sentenced in court - full list
From a man who almost collided with oncoming traffic while almost three times the legal limit to a repeat offender nabbed with meth and marijuana in his system, these were the people recently sentenced in court for drink or drug driving. FULL LIST:
Police & Courts
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A man who was seen erratically swerving all over a highway and almost collided with oncoming traffic while almost three times the legal alcohol limit was just one of the people recently sentenced for drink or drug driving in Warwick courts.
Gregory Arthur Baker was first spotted veering around other vehicles to overtake them on the Cunningham Highway at Willowbank at about 4.30pm on May 8, with other drivers also noting his car’s hazard lights were on.
Police prosecutor Andrew Grafton told the Warwick Magistrates Court that a caravan travelling in the opposite direction had to swerve to avoid crashing into Baker, whose erratic behaviour prompted nearby drivers to film parts of the incident and take it to police.
The 50-year-old was pulled over by officers as he arrived in Warwick, with the father claiming he had just finished a can of bourbon before making the trip from Shailer Park to Warwick.
He later recorded a blood alcohol concentration of 0.149.
A self-represented Baker said his dangerous driving could in part be put down to an altercation with another driver, claiming the other person abused him and wouldn’t let him into the correct lane.
He said he had struggled to make ends meet and provide for his family after having his licence immediately suspended, but was working with his partner and mental health professionals to get his life back on track.
“I’m deeply remorseful and understand the gravity of what’s happened,” he said.
Magistrate Virginia Sturgess warned Baker he needed to take greater care on the roads if he valued his licence, noting he had only regained it in December last year following an earlier drink driving conviction.
“It is very lucky, in my view, that nothing more serious happened that day,” she said.
Baker pleaded guilty to one count each of drink driving and driving without due care and attention.
He was fined $1200 and disqualified from driving for six months.
Joseph Lindsay Tucker was taken off the roads for six months after he was busted behind the wheel with both meth and marijuana in his system.
The 49-year-old was nabbed by police on April 18 while driving on the Cunningham Highway at Gladfield, where he tested positive to drugs in his system.
Defence lawyer Nathan Bouchier told the Warwick court his client had been convicted of drug driving in both 2018 and 2019 but was not a regular user of methamphetamines, only using the drug when he caught up with a friend a few days before being pulled over.
“It all stems, just briefly, from a motor vehicle accident that he had many, many years ago in which he sustained numerous injuries, and he has used drugs in a self-medicating type of way on and off since that time,” Mr Bouchier said.
“He has in fact now become engaged with and accepted into the medicinal (marijuana) program.”
Tucker pleaded guilty to drug driving and was also fined $800.
Joseph William McNally caught a lucky break when he was granted a work licence after pleading guilty to drug driving.
The 21-year-old was busted driving with meth in his system when he was pulled over by police on Percy St on March 19.
McNally told the Warwick court that he lived at home and worked for his father’s business, but would risk losing his apprenticeship if he was unable to drive for a month.
He was fined $300 and disqualified from driving for two months, but his work licence was approved.
A Warwick woman who drew police attention while driving her grandchildren to preschool wound up in court when officers also found drugs in her system.
Police prosecutor Andrew Grafton said Mellisa Ann Stokes was stopped on Pratten St on May 25 due to her manner of driving, with a drug test completed at the scene later revealing marijuana and traces of meth in her system.
He said Stokes told police she had smoked marijuana about four times the previous evening, but thought she would be safe to drive the next morning.
Stokes told the court she “didn’t understand” why her test results showed meth and said she was not a regular drug user at all, but had gone through a difficult few months and wanted some relief.
She pleaded guilty to drug driving and was fined $500 and disqualified from driving for three months.
Four cans of beer before driving his unregistered vehicle through Warwick earnt Aaron William Goodwin a three-month licence disqualification.
Warwick Magistrates Court heard that police pulled over Goodwin after scanning his licence plate and seeing his car registration had expired a month prior.
The 22-year-old was then breath-tested at the scene and recorded a BAC of 0.061, well above his required zero-alcohol limit.
Goodwin claimed he thought he had a “grace period” to pay his registration after its expiry, and was waiting for a decent pay before renewing it.
Magistrate Virginia Sturgess told Goodwin he had made a “pretty silly decision” in deciding to drive home that night.
“Those four cans of beer were always going to be too much, but having one of them was going to get you over the zero limit, wasn’t it?” she said.
“When you’re on a zero limit, it’s easy – you just don’t drink.”
Goodwin pleaded guilty to one count each of drink driving and driving an unregistered vehicle. He was fined $500.
Driving home after a big night out proved a costly mistake for David Norman Betts.
The Warwick man was nabbed on Old Stanthorpe Rd at about 10.30am on June 6, where he recorded a BAC of 0.097.
The 46-year-old told the court he had been at a party the night before and played several drinking games, but was still “very shocked” to return such a high reading after several hours’ sleep and eating breakfast before hitting the road.
Betts pleaded guilty to drink driving. He was fined $500 and disqualified from driving for two months.
Being busted behind the wheel with drugs in her system and no learner supervision earned Jordan Ann Ferguson a date with the Warwick magistrate.
Ferguson was nabbed by Warwick police on April 17, with a licence check revealing she was driving as an unsupervised learner and had failed to display L-plates on her vehicle.
Further drug testing at the scene revealed the 25-year-old also had marijuana in her system.
The Warwick woman told the court she knew it was “her silly mistake” and took full responsibility for driving that day, claiming she was going to see her grandmother and had simply forgotten to put the extra plates on her car.
Ferguson pleaded guilty to one count each of drug driving, driving unsupervised as a learner, and not displaying L-plates.
She was fined $590 and disqualified from driving for three months.
Being on parole for drug offences did not deter Joe David Driscoll-McEwen from driving with meth in his system.
The 27-year-old was nabbed on the Cunningham Highway on May 22, where he tested positive to the drug.
Driscoll-McEwen’s application for a work licence was denied due to a previous drug driving conviction in 2020, and he was warned by magistrate Virginia Sturgess that continuing to use drugs and drive was “very dangerous” for someone with his criminal history.
The Warwick man pleaded guilty to drug driving. He was fined $400 and disqualified from driving for three months.
Smoking three joints the night before getting behind the wheel was enough to land Richard Vincent Preece in court.
The 40-year-old was pulled over on Leyburn Cunningham Rd at Leyburn and tested positive to marijuana in his system.
Defence lawyer Hamish Chapman told the Warwick court that his client had a prescription for medicinal marijuana and used the drug for pain relief, but was previously unaware that it was illegal to drive after using it.
Preece pleaded guilty to drug driving. He was fined $200 and disqualified from driving for one month.
Phillip Alexander Tyler was taken off the roads for six months after he was busted drug driving while on a probationary licence.
He was nabbed by police while pulling out of the Spano’s IGA car park onto Albert St, with later testing confirming meth in his system.
Tyler said he had been struggling with his health and thought he would have been safe to drive more than 24 hours after using drugs.
He was also fined $500.
Warwick man Steven William Thomas lost his licence for a month after pleading guilty to drink driving.
He was busted behind the wheel with a BAC of 0.062 while driving in Toowoomba in April.
Thomas was also fined $300.
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