Burpengary man banned from driving for Two-and-a-half years after crashing into house

Magistrate puts fear of prison into serial offender who crashed into a house while disqualified from driving, causing almost $19,000 in damages.

A SERIAL offender was presented with the “terrifying” reality of jail after he crashed into a house while disqualified from driving.

James Rihari Allan Horlor, from Burpengary, pleaded guilty in Pine Rivers Magistrates Court on July 6 to one charge of driving over the zero alcohol limit, and one charge of driving while disqualified.

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Horlor now has five drink driving convictions and has twice been caught driving with a disqualified licence.

Magistrate Trevor Morgan said if he was caught driving while disqualified a third time, he would go to jail.

“That’s not a threat, that’s simply explaining the facts of life to you,” he said.”

The court heard that around 6pm on May 1, Horlor was behind the wheel of a car that mounted the kerb and crashed into the front yard of a house in Kallangur.

Witnesses saw Horlor leave the driver’s side of the car and enter the passenger side of another car which drove off.

Police intercepted the second car a short time later and found Horlor had a BAC of 0.4, under the general limit, but above the provisional limit of zero.

Horlor admitted to drinking two stubbies of beer that afternoon.

The owner of the property where Horlor crashed claimed restitution of nearly $19,000 in damages.

Magistrate Morgan dismissed this claim, but said the property owner’s insurers would undoubtably come after him for the money.

Horlor, who represented himself, stated he was driving disqualified so he could get to work in the early morning, before the train services began.

He said the car was borrowed from his partner’s cousin and he was in the process of buying it from the cousin for $5000.

It was written off in the crash.

“At the heart of this is a decision to drive while disqualified,” magistrate Morgan said.

“Your (driving) history is so bad that you run the risk of going to jail.

“Over my 40-odd years kicking around criminal law, I’ve been in just about every jail in Queensland as a visitor.

“I can assure you that I would be so afraid of going to jail that if I was on a sentence like yours, I’d even hesitate about getting in a car. I’d be so scared about going to jail.

“That’s how frightening it is.

“If you’re caught behind the wheel of a car in the next 2.5 years, you are going to go to jail.”

Horlor was disqualified from driving for 30 months — three months for driving with alcohol in his system, and a further two years and three months for driving with a disqualified licence.

He was also fined $1500.