Natalie Matti: Police employee caught drink driving at Great Western Highway Parramatta
A NSW Police employee and aspiring cop was caught drink driving in western Sydney after drinking alone at different pubs.
Parramatta
Don't miss out on the headlines from Parramatta . Followed categories will be added to My News.
NSW Police employee and aspiring cop Natalie Matti, who was caught drink driving at Parramatta after she consumed more than a litre of beer after a night out in October, has pleaded guilty to the offence.
The 26-year-old Fairfield West woman appeared at Parramatta Local Court on Tuesday after she was charged with mid-range drink driving on Sunday, October 18.
The police pulled up Matti on the Great Western Highway at 12.40am after she failed to stop at a red traffic light and a subsequent breath analysis returned a positive result of 0.081.
She was charged at Merrylands police station and her licence was suspended.
Court papers revealed Matti, who works as an acting executive officer for the NSW Police force’s South West Metropolitan Region, consumed four Hahn Super Dry beer bottles each of 330ml at different licensed premises across Parramatta between 8.30pm on October 17 and 12.20am on October 18, without any food.
Matti’s lawyer Michelle Duncan told the court her client drank to escape problems at home with her father, who was a heavy drinker who became aggressive with alcohol.
“On this particular night my client was feeling quite flat,’’ Ms Duncan said.
She drunk alone and “politely accepted’’ a drink from a man but continued drinking at another pub to avoid returning home to see her father.
The court heard Matti had six minor driving offences in the 10 years she has held a licence and depended on it to continue volunteering with the SES, for “which she needs to be on call’’ and also told the court she had completed a traffic offenders’ program
She said her client contributed to the community and had been in the workforce for a decade from when she started as a receptionist at a real estate agency before progressing to property and commercial management and then for the police force as a civilian employee.
Ms Duncan told the court Matti’s long term goal was to become a policewoman after joining in her administration role more than three years ago.
“She’s a lady of 26 years of age who’s given back to the community, has worked, given money back to the community and given money to her sister,’’ she said.
Magistrate Stephen Olischlager took into account Matti’s early guilty plea and noted character references including from the SES for whom she is a “valuable member’’.
“You’re still young and clearly I accept there are things in your family background that aren’t easy to deal with,’’ he said.
“Alcohol will never be the answer to that.’’
Matti was sentenced to a two-year community condition release order without a conviction.