Budgewoi: Serial disqualified driver Chelsie-Joi Beggan narrowly avoids jail for fifth offence
A woman — facing possible jail time after being caught a fifth time behind the wheel while suspended — drove to court and then asked for her new disqualification to start a day later.
Central Coast
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Chelsie-Joi Beggan would have been going out the side door to jail when she appeared at Wyong Local Court on Monday – had it not been for two psychological reports documenting a history of mental illness, a magistrate said.
However the 28-year-old drove to court and then asked for her latest penalty to start the following day so she could drive home.
An agreed set of facts states Beggan was pulled over at a stationary random breath testing site southbound on Budgewoi Rd, at Budgewoi, in her white Peugot sedan at 8.45pm on September 10 last year.
Checks revealed her licence was suspended.
Beggan, of Toukley, told officers “Oh no, it needed a medical certificate submitted which I’ve done so my licence is okay now”.
However further checks revealed her licence had been suspended on the spot when she was charged with mid-range drink-driving a month earlier on August 14.
“She then stated `Oh no, the suspension doesn’t start until I go to court’,” the facts state.
Beggan was charged with driving while suspended and given a court attendance notice.
She pleaded guilty at her first appearance and was adjourned to undergo a pre-sentence assessment report after a magistrate found her “appalling record” meant her latest offence “crossed the threshold” to warrant a jail sentence.
On Monday her solicitor Frankie Devine told the court the “threshold has not been crossed” and tendered two psychological reports documenting her struggles with mental illness.
The court heard it was Beggan’s fifth driving while suspended conviction within three years and came after offences in June 2020, September 2020 and two in January 2021.
She had also been put on a community corrections order and disqualified for a minimum of six months after pleading guilty to mid-range drink-driving in August 2022.
Her traffic record states she was eligible to get her licence back last month.
A different Magistrate on Monday said had it not been for a “reduction in moral culpability” because of her history of mental health, including complex post traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder, he would have sent her to jail as well.
Magistrate Robert Munro convicted and fined Beggan $1000 and disqualified her from driving for six months.
However her solicitor Mr Devine quickly sought for the disqualification period to begin the following day, which was granted.
“My client drove [to court], can it start tomorrow” he asked.
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