Kenneth William Martin faces court over Ravenshoe Hotel offences

The 46 year old had to be physically carried out of a pub he refused to leave. Police found him lying in a gutter a short time later.

Ravenshoe pub patrons alerted staff after witnessing an excessively intoxicated man downing a bottle of alcohol-based hand sanitiser. File photo:: NCA NewsWire / Jenny Evans

A 46-year-old Collinsville man has been sentenced over a wild pub outing that involved drinking hand sanitiser after being refused service at the bar .

Kenneth William Martin appeared at Proserpine Magistrates Court this week, pleading guilty to public nuisance and fail to leave licensed premises charges resulting from offences at Ravenshoe Hotel on April 10.

The court heard bar staff stopped serving Martin alcohol when he reached an “excessive” level of intoxication, after drinking at the venue all afternoon.

Instead of going back to his hotel room, Martin went to the pub’s upstairs balcony, where he proceeded to drink an entire bottle of alcohol-based hand sanitiser liquid the pub had supplied for patrons’ use.

He remained in the upstairs area until about 7pm, when he had an altercation with two other male patrons, and when a staff member attempted to intervene, grabbed them by the face with both hands.

When the owner of the premises confronted Martin and asked him to leave, he aggressively punched a stair railing, before falling down the flight of stairs.

He was eventually restrained and carried out of the premises, attempting to “grab” another staff member in the process, as well as kick a female patron.

When police arrived, responding to two triple-zero calls, Martin was lying in a gutter, acting “belligerent”.

When asked how much he had had to drink, he replied “probably too much”.

He swore at and threatened the arresting officers, including making numerous threats to kill them.

Martin’s solicitor Elizabeth Smith said her client was deeply remorseful and embarrassed about his actions.

She said at the time of the offending, the diesel-fitter was under financial stress resulting from an ongoing property settlement with his former wife.

He had taken time off his work in the mining sector to go on a motorbike ride up to the Tablelands, and was “incredibly” intoxicated at the time of the incident, to the point that he had no recollection of the afternoon’s events.

“Alcohol is not a problem, necessarily, for him; but, when looking at his history, he accepts that there is a thread of alcohol leading to poor decision-making,” Ms Smith said.

Magistrate Ron Muirhead imposed a $1500 fine and recorded a conviction.

He said Martin was right to be embarrassed.

“It’s extremely poor behaviour for a man your age,” he said.

“You’ve got a problem with binge drinking by the sounds of it, and that’s putting it mildly.”