Biba Turnbull: Curl Curl elite snowboarder sentenced for drink driving
She used to be an elite winter athlete who represented Australia at snowboarding, but now Biba Turnbull has lost her licence after she was caught driving after a boozy evening at a popular Manly dining spot.
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A former elite winter athlete who represented Australia at World Cup snowboarding events has been convicted of drink driving.
Biba Turnbull, 25, was stopped for a random breath test and blew 0.122 – more than two times the legal limit – after a boozy night out in Manly.
Turnbull, from Curl Curl, who gave the sport away after suffering a number of concussions while competing in snowboard slopestyle events in Europe, Canada, the United States and New Zealand, was sentenced in Manly Local Court on Wednesday afternoon.
The former professional snowboarder, who grew up at Bondi and who also represented NSW at state junior surfing titles, was disqualified from getting behind the wheel for three months after pleading guilty to mid-range drink driving.
Turnbull, who was close to being chosen to represent Australia at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, was also hit with a $900 fine.
In a facts sheet tendered to court police said Turnbull was driving a Toyota Hilux ute on Pittwater Rd at Manly on Wednesday, November 6 last year when she was stopped at a police RBT site.
She had been to dinner with a friend at Hugo’s cocktail bar and restaurant at Manly Wharf from 5.30pm to 8.45pm.
Turnbull told police she had two glasses of wine and a cocktail and thought she was fine to drive.
“A smell of intoxicating liquor could be smelt from the accused’s vehicle (when she was pulled over),” police said.
Turnbull cried when she was being interviewed at Dee Why police station.
Magistrate Mark Richardson was told that if Turnbull lost her licence her job organising junior surfing competition events along the NSW coast would be in jeopardy.
Mr Richardson was also handed a note from a doctor advising the court that she had to give away snowboarding after suffering “five or six” concussions in competitions.
The court was told that she is attending meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous.
The magistrate also ordered that when she gets her licence back, she will have to have an alcohol interlock device fitted to her car to prevent her from driving with alcohol in her system.