Capalaba mother of two drives unlicensed despite previous duo of high-range drink driving offences
A court has heard a nurse drunk drove while almost five times the limit and over five times the limit twice in the space of 14 days.
Redlands Coast
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A qualified nurse has been given a suspended jail sentence after she drove while court disqualified in the aftermath of two high-range drink driving offences she racked up in the space of a month.
Appearing at the Cleveland Magistrates Court yesterday Rachael Louise Casson, 33, pleaded guilty to driving without a licence while disqualified by a court, contravention of probation order and stealing.
The court heard Capalaba woman Casson was intercepted by police on November 4 last year driving on McDonald Road in Alexandra Hills.
Casson, the court was told, was court suspended from driving at the time and on probation for two instances of high-range drink driving.
On March 10 in 2018 the defendant was followed across the Story Bridge into Fortitude Valley by a driver whose vehicle she had rolled back into.
The court heard the victim driver would only abandon his chase after Casson drove through a red light and police were called.
Tests would confirm she was nearly five times the legal alcohol limit with blood-alcohol reading of 0.248 per cent.
And on March 24, the court was told, Casson was again intercepted by police who would find three bottles of wine in her vehicle after a hit-and-run incident in Indooroopilly.
With a confirmed blood-alcohol reading more than five times the limit, at 0.252 per cent Casson was convicted and charged with driving while court disqualified and put on three years’ probation.
A clearly frustrated Magistrate Deborah Vasta said the court had done everything it could for the defendant, while she had done “nothing” – which included failing to report on 18 occasions.
The defence solicitor said the qualified nurse and mother of two was currently a stay-at-home mother and had not consumed alcohol since a particularly traumatic personal event in June last year.
The defence also stressed that her client’s latest traffic offence had not involved alcohol.
Having stolen groceries from Coles in February Casson was fined $300 for restitution and sentenced to two months’ imprisonment wholly suspended over 18 months.
The defendant was also disqualified from driving for another two years.