Sandara Dee Dunn faces Warwick Magistrates Court following drug driving carpark crash

A Warwick mum who hasn’t held a driver’s licence in 15 years has faced court following a carpark crash while she was behind the wheel on drugs.

A Warwick mum’s drugged up trip to the shops has landed her in front of a magistrate, charged with causing a three-car pileup in a busy shopping centre carpark.

Sandara Dee Dunn pleaded guilty to three charges, including driving while a relevant drug was in her saliva, driving without due care and driving without a licence repeat offender.

Defence lawyer Hamish Chapman said the 52-year-old was “very remorseful” after being caught on Palmerin St on December 24.

“Her partner wasn’t fit to drive at the time and needed medical help,” Mr Chapman said.

The court was told Dunn was found by police just before 10am on Christmas Eve after she had crashed into two stationary vehicles at Rose City Shoppingworld.

A roadside breath test saw Dunn test positive for cannabis and methamphetamine, to which she told officers she had used smoked cannabis through a bong that morning.

When asked to produce a driver’s licence, Dunn told officers she did not have one, and inquiries revealed it had been disqualified in 2007 and had never been applied for again since.

Dunn told officers she was “driving to the shops to get groceries” and the crash was caused by a failure of the reverse gear, causing the car to accelerate forward and Dunn losing control of the vehicle.

Magistrate Virginia Sturgess told the court “once the police were finished the vehicle seemed to operate without any issues”.

“You were not fit to drive on that day because you’d smoked a bong that morning and had no driver’s licence,” Ms Sturgess said.

“You’re well aware you need a driver’s licence to drive, there’s absolutely no excuse, you’ve been told enough times.”

Dunn received a six-month suspension from driving and was fined $1200.