Cleo Whithear: Senior property manager convicted for refusing police breath tests

A senior real estate employee, who hid behind a garden shed to avoid being breath tested by cops, has been sentenced in a Sydney court.

Cleo Whithear, 44, a senior property manager from Warriewood, outside Manly Local Court on Wednesday where she was convicted of refusing to take police breath tests after she suspected of drink driving.

A senior employee at one of the northern beaches’ leading real estate agencies has been convicted of refusing police breath tests after officers found her, intoxicated, hiding behind a garden shed.

Police discovered Cleo Whithear, 44, the senior property manager at Novak Properties in Dee Why, in the yard of a private home at Mona Vale after members of the public reported seeing her get behind the wheel of her Hyundai while “heavily affected” by alcohol.

Manly Local Court heard on Wednesday that minutes earlier, Whithear, of Warriewood, had driven away from a licenced premises at 1.30am on Thursday, February 8.

Cleo Whithear, 44, is a senior property manager at the Novak Properties real estate agency on the northern beaches. Picture: Supplied

Witnesses followed her car as it headed north in Samuel St, near Pittwater RSL.

In a facts sheet tendered to court police stated that Whithear parked the SUV in the street and entered a private front yard to hide.

“Police found her hiding next to a shed in the yard,” according to the facts sheet.

Officers reported that she was unsteady on her feet and had bloodshot eyes.

They pointed at the car and asked her if she had been driving it.

Whithear replied that she “wasn’t driving and was walking”.

She then refused to take a roadside police breath test before being arrested at taken to Mona Vale Police Station.

Manly Local Court was told that Cleo Whithear refused to provide a roadside breath test. File picture: Luka Kauzlaric

Whithear told police she had consumed between two and four glasses of wine.

The court heard she was given three opportunities to provide a sample of her breath for analysis at the station, but she refused each time.

“She was adamant she did not drive the vehicle,” the police stated.

“The accused continuously stated that she knew her rights and did not have to provide her breath as she was not pulled over in her vehicle or caught driving by the police,” the facts sheet stated.

Whithear pleaded guilty to one count of refuse to submit to breath analysis and one count of refuse breath test.

Cleo Whithear refused, three times, to provide a breath sample for analysis at Mona Vale Police Station. File Picture: John Grainger

Her solicitor Ian Byrne said she and her husband had been under immense pressure brought on by long hours of work needed to service their “$1 million mortgage”.

Mr Byrne said she had acknowledged that she had made a mistake.

Magistrate Robyn Denes said Whthear had previous drink drive convictions on her record and told her that “what you did was reckless and selfish”.

“It’s just about respect for other people on the road … and respect for yourself.”

Whithear was handed a Community Correction Order to be of good behaviour for 12 months and disqualified from driving for seven months. She must fit an alcohol interlock device on her car for two years.