Ingham court: Seven people plead guilty to drink, drug-drive charges
A drunken man who did not know how he came to be driving in the middle of a North Queensland town had the highest alcohol reading of seven people to admit to drink or drug driving in the same court on the same day.
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A man who was so drunk he did not know how he came to be driving in the middle of a North Queensland town recorded the highest alcohol reading of seven people to admit to drink or drug driving in the same court on the same day.
Otto Melzig, 50, who works in Papua New Guinea but resides in Ingham, pleaded guilty in the Ingham Magistrates Court to driving under the influence of alcohol (UIL) on Herbert Street, the Bruce Highway, on October 12.
Queensland Police Service prosecutor Luay Allawy said Melzig had a breath-alcohol concentration of 0.192, just shy of four times the legal limit, when he was stopped by police just before midnight.
He said police saw the man leaving Lees Hotel and drive a short distance before he was stopped and admitted to drinking rums and beer from 3pm.
The defendant, who was self-represented, said he knew he had too much to drink.
“I recall telling the bar person I wasn’t driving home, I would walk and collect the vehicle in the next morning, which I could have easily done,” he said.
“For some reason or another I made the wrong choice, I got in the car and I drove about 50 metres and was pulled over.”
Melzig said he lived in Ingham because he could drive to Cairns and fly to PNG as part of his work commute.
“This incident has absolutely devastated that entire plan; I now have to catch a bus to Cairns and stay in a hotel, I’m on call, I should be able to get on the next flight, I am now no longer able to.”
He said that equated to an additional cost of about $800 per trip resulting in “financial hardship”.
“I know how serious (the charge) is … I don’t know why I did what I did.”
Melzig said he was seeking treatment for alcohol abuse and depression.
Magistrate Cathy McLennan noted the defendant’s good traffic history and early guilty plea.
He was convicted, fined $800 and disqualified from driving for seven months.
Geoffrey Ruddick
A remorseful Townsville man said he was deeply ashamed and embarrassed when he appeared in the Ingham Magistrates Court for low-range drink driving.
Geoffrey Timothy Hector Ruddick, 35, pleaded guilty on October 31 to blowing just over the allowable alcohol limit of 0.05 at 8.50pm on Herbert Street on October 7.
Mr Allawy of Legal Aid Queensland said the defendant, who had no priors, admitted to police that he had had four XXXX beers between 6.15pm and 8.30pm.
Defence lawyer John Hopes, a partner at legal firm Giudes & Elliott, said his client was in town to see rock band Grinspoon and had intended to stay the night in Ingham but could not find accommodation.
“He then made the classic silly mistake of thinking that he was under the legal limit and was able to drive,” he said.
“He is deeply ashamed of his actions, he realises the embarrassment it had caused him but also the danger to road users,” he said.
“He’s had to inform his employer about this charge and it’s caused him a great deal of embarrassment.”
Ruddick was convicted, fined $250 and disqualified from driving for the minimum-mandatory one-month period.
Warren Johnson
Farmhand Warren Brian Johnson also pleaded guilty to drink driving over the general alcohol limit with a BAC of 0.066, again on Herbert Street, at 1.30am on Saturday, September 28.
Mr Allawy said Johnson had had a few drinks at a mate’s place and then at the pub between 6pm and midnight.
“He had about three or four cans of rum and thought he would be alright to drive.”
He had no objections to the defendant’s application for a work licence.
Johnson, who had no prior convictions, was convicted, fined $400, disqualified for one month and granted a work licence to commute to and from his workplace and for the purposes of his employment.
Daymon Giles Shardlow
Daymon Wayne Giles Shardlow, 25, a probationary driver, pleaded guilty to driving with the presence of methylamphetamine, known as ice, as well as cannabis in his system on Palm Terrace in Ingham at 7.46pm on August 16.
Giles Shardlow, who was self-represented and had a previous conviction for the same offence, said it was a “dumb decision” to drive and that he had sought treatment for substance abuse.
Magistrate McLennan said that was positive.
“You’ve got a life in front of you and you don’t want to get mentally ill.”
She said drug use, particularly with ice, was devastating.
“Sometimes with meth … what I see with people coming back regularly is like they are on top of a slide and with meth, it’s such a quick trip to the bottom,” she said.
“It’s such a quick trip between someone with just one offence on their traffic history to the bottom, which is jail, mental health problems, all that sort of stuff.”
Magistrate McLennan also said that studies had shown that people with one drug in their system were 17 times more likely to be involved in a crash, but people with two drugs in their system were “170 times more likely to be involved in an accident”.
“That means not only you are risking your life but other people of the road as well.”
Giles Shardlow, who agreed with the magistrate’s sentiments, was convicted, fined $400 and disqualified from driving for four months.
Jesse Slockee
Repeat offender Jesse James Slockee, 26, pleaded guilty to one count each of drug driving at Victoria Plantation on August 16 and drink driving at Blackrock on October 25, both in Hinchinbrook Shire.
Documents tendered to the court showed that Slockee had prior convictions from drug driving in 2020 and 2019.
Mr Allawy said in the first incident in August this year, the relevant drug present was cannabis.
He said in the second incident, the defendant recorded a BAC of 0.135, almost three times the legal limit.
A self-represented Slockee regretted his “dumb decision to drive”, with Magistrate McLennan asking why he would do so with the drug-driving charge still before the court.
“I just wanted to get out of the house before I lost my licence, I should not have driven, I was even offered a lift home so I could have been the bigger person.”
The defendant said he was unemployed because he had lost his job as an apprentice cabinet maker after the prior drug-driving bust.
Slockee was convicted, fined $950 and disqualified from driving for a cumulative total of 13 months.
Dale Newman
A distraught Dale Desmond Newman had trouble accepting that he would lose his licence for driving with medicinal cannabis in his system.
Newman, who began to shake uncontrollably and cry during the hearing, pleaded guilty to drug driving in Cartwright Street in Ingham on August 16.
Mr Allawy said there was nothing about the defendant’s driving that caught the police’s attention, and that he had been cooperative.
“He stated by his own volition that he had just smoked cannabis and that he actually had a prescription for medicinal cannabis,” he said.
“Unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, in the state of Queensland someone will still be guilty of that offence, notwithstanding having that prescription.”
Magistrate McLennan told Newman that he could use prescription cannabis “but you cannot drive”.
She also expressed concern that the defendant was using cannabis for anxiety and what the defendant said were other issues, saying “cannabis causes mental health problems”.
Newman, a father of two, was convicted and disqualified from driving for one month.
“I need to get my kids from school this afternoon,” Newman sobbed as walked from the dock.
Tristan Catchinda
Tristan Anthony Catchinda, 26, pleaded guilty in the Ingham Magistrates Court to drug driving in Steele St, Cloncurry on August 3.
Mr Allawy said Catchinda admitted to police that he was a recreational cannabis user and that he had smoked the drug in the last week.
Defence lawyer Fleur Lettice said her client was an unemployed father of two and full-time carer of his young child, aged four.
She said her client, who was remorseful, had a minor drink-drive conviction with a reading of 0.028 and another drug drive outside the five-year period in 2018.
Catchinda was convicted, fined $350 and disqualified from driving for two months.
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Originally published as Ingham court: Seven people plead guilty to drink, drug-drive charges
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