Daniel John Reardon faces Toowoomba Magistrates Court for drug driving, driving while disqualified

The 42-year-old was ordered off the road for 30 months and now has a jail term hanging over his head. See why here.

Merely driving home after visiting family was enough to leave a 42-year-old Toowoomba man with a jail term hanging over his head and without his driver’s licence for more than two years.

Daniel John Reardon was pulled over by a police patrol on Monash Lane, Newtown, about 10pm, New Year’s Eve 2022, Toowoomba Magistrates Court was told.

While he produced his driver’s licence, police checks found it had been disqualified from July 6, 2022, to April 5, 2026, police prosecutor Bettina Trenear told the court.

After a roadside drug test proved positive, Reardon was required to provide a saliva test which turned up positive for methamphetamine, she said.

Daniel John Reardon leaving Toowoomba Courthouse on July 12, 2023, after pleading guilty to drug driving while disqualified.

Reardon pleaded guilty to drug driving and driving while disqualified by court order as well as to breaching two probation orders to which he was subject at the time.

Ms Trenear said Reardon had 11 pages of traffic history which included a number of drink-driving offences, unlicensed driving and other traffic offences.

“He shows complete disregard for road rules and court orders,” Ms Trenear submitted.

Defence solicitor Joe McConnell, of McConnell Saldumbide Lawyers, told the court his client instructed he had hit “rock bottom” in 2022 in the lead-up to the events that night.

His client had not been pulled over for anything to do with the manner of driving and he had been driving home from his father’s place, he said.

Reardon had suffered a series of tragedies including the death of his pregnant wife in a car crash followed by a number of other setbacks culminating in the death of his younger sister in August 2022, he said.

His client had worked for many years in leading positions in mining companies as a FIFO worker but had been out of work since his life spiralled out of control leaving him to experiment with drug use, he said.

However, Reardon was due to start a high profile FIFO job in Western Australia in coming weeks and he was “in a much more stable place than he was”, Mr McConnell submitted.

Magistrate Clare Kelly sentenced Reardon to four months in jail but ordered the whole term be suspended forthwith for 12 months and disqualified him from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for 30 months.

Originally published as Daniel John Reardon faces Toowoomba Magistrates Court for drug driving, driving while disqualified