Drink-driver Lisa Sherlock to spend time behind bars after

A serial high-range drink-driver has been jailed, with a court told she crashed her car into a ditch late last year while disqualified from driving and on probation for a previous DUI offence.

A serial high-range drink-driver has been sent to jail in tears, with an angry Gold Coast magistrate saying she was putting “many” lives at risk and other road users had to be protected.

And Lisa Sherlock’s latest whopping blood alcohol reading of 0.33 per cent — more than six times the legal limit — wasn’t even her highest.

Sherlock, 53, pleaded guilty on Monday to her sixth drink-driving offence as well as disqualified driving.

Southport Magistrates Court heard the mum-of-two was on probation for her previous DUI offence just four months earlier when she lost control of her Nissan X-Trail on December 14 last year and crashed into a ditch, writing off the $30,000 vehicle.

Serial drink-driver Lisa Sherlock has been jailed.

She was taken by ambulance to Gold Coast University Hospital where she recorded the sky-high blood alcohol reading.

Sherlock denied having been drinking and told police she did not know how the crash happened but was aware she was disqualified from driving, the court was told.

Defence lawyer Blake Fraser, of Fraser Lawyers, told the court his client had been released from hospital only four days earlier after treatment for frequent fainting and dizziness.

He said she had ran out of medication and made the “foolish decision” to drive to the pharmacy to get more.

“Luckily no-one else was injured or no other vehicle involved,” Mr Fraser said.

“It was a serious example of drink-driving.”

Mr Fraser said Sherlock had been abusing alcohol since 1995 when she suffered “quite severe” domestic violence in a previous relationship.

He said her drink-driving had “flared up” after her mother died last year and Sherlock’s two children, aged 10 and 15, went to live full-time with their father.

Sherlock was now going to Alcoholics Anonymous and seeing a psychologist, Mr Fraser told the court.

Magistrate John Costanzo questioned why Sherlock had not received treatment for her alcohol abuse and drink-driving while on probation.

He noted she had drink-driving convictions in 1988 (.14 per cent), 1999 (.237 per cent), 2009 (.348 per cent), 2012 (.223 per cent) and 2021 (.266 per cent) and that she had received probation three times.

“You have to get the message that drink-driving is not on,” Mr Costanzo told Sherlock.

“You are seriously putting your own life and the lives of many other people at risk.

“This court must act to protect the safety and wellbeing of other road users and the public generally.”

Mr Costanzo sentenced a crying and shell-shocked Sherlock to six months jail but ordered she be released on parole on September 17.

He also disqualified her from driving for a total of five years.