Daniel Afonso: NPM managing director pleads guilty to drink driving

The managing director at a construction firm responsible for building and designing some of Sydney’s most exclusive office buildings has learnt his fate for a drink driving charge.

A prestigious construction firm director has walked out of court without a conviction after he admitted to driving over the blood alcohol limit in Sydney’s south.

Daniel Afonso pleaded guilty to a single charge of low-range drink driving at Sutherland Local Court on Tuesday.

Afonso was represented by prominent silk Simon Buchen SC who appeared in court and told the court the prosecution has changed the charge from mid to low level drink driving following representations to police.

Afonso accepted his blood alcohol reading was between 0.05 and 0.08.

Businessman Daniel Afonso (middle), with his lawyers, has pleaded guilty to a charge of low-range drink driving in Sutherland Local Court. Picture: Ashleigh Tullis

Police facts tendered to court said Afonso came under the notice of highway patrol police due to his manner of driving while he was in his Toyota HiLux ute travelling in a southerly direction on Southern Cross Drive just before midnight on March 11 this year.

Afonso was in lane three of three and there were marked signs indicating driver’s must keep left unless overtaking.

Afonso was overtaken before officers from the city east highway patrol unit noticed the ute deviating from side to side of the lane, with the wheels crossing into lane two, the documents said.

A police check of Afonso’s speed indicated he was travelling 70km/h in the 80km/h speed zone but then rapidly increased to 85km/h when another car began to overtake him before he moved into lane two.

Police followed behind the ute because they were unable to safely pull the car over.

Officers noticed the car again veered into another lane before officers activated their warning lights and sirens, the documents said.

Afonso did not immediately react to the police signal to stop as he swerved in the lane and overshot the entrance to a car park.

Once stopped, officers spoke to Afonso who presented his driver’s licence.

According to documents, they immediately smelt alcohol emanating from the ute while talking to Afonso.

He told officers he had drunk four or five gin and tonics before returning a positive roadside breath test.

Afonso was arrested and taken to St George Police Station where he again returned a positive breach analysis.

Businessman Daniel Afonso (middle), with his lawyers during a previous Sutherland Local Court appearance. Picture: Ashleigh Tullis

Afonso refused to have a doctor perform a blood test.

His licence was then confiscated by police and he was issued with a notice of suspension.

Afonso was issued with a fine for disobeying the keep left unless overtaking signs.

The court documents said Afonso’s defence team made representations to the police in which a medical opinion report was provided which raised the query that Afonso’s level of intoxication at the time of the traffic stop may have been in the low-range category rather than the middle range.

His lawyers requested an expert medical opinion report from NSW Police, which could not rule out the possibility and the police withdrew the middle-range charge and replaced it with the low-range drink driving charge.

In court on Tuesday, Mr Buchan, who is a respected barrister appearing in multiple high profile cases, said his client was “generally driving under the speed limit at the time” at the time of the offence, was compliant when signalled to stop by police and during the blood alcohol testing.

Mr Buchan said Afonso was on a good behaviour licence at the time after having lost five demerit points for using a mobile phone and further demerit points for low-level speeding offences detected by cameras.

Mr Buchan submitted Afonso had undertaken the traffic offenders program where he gained “appropriate insight into his offending conduct, and the “potential consequences” of his actions.

“He has true remorse,” he said. “He has demonstrated impressive rehabilitation.”

Mr Buchan noted Afonso had already been off the road for nearly four months.

Magistrate Philip Stewart noted a pharmacological report had been prepared and tendered to the court.

He took into account that Afonso had been off the road since the incident which he described as a “lengthy period”, adding Afonso appeared to be a “community-based man” and had acted responsibly while suspended because Uber receipts of trips had been tendered to court.

Magistrate Stewart noted the traffic offenders program had a “salient effect” on Afonso, which he accepted from a letter of apology, and he had taken positives steps in rehabilitation and was “unlikely to reoffend”.

Magistrate Stewart did not record a conviction and Afonso was placed on a conditional release order for 12 months in recognition that Afonso was on a good behaviour licence at the time of the incident.

Afonso founded the company NPM, which has offices across the country, and provides maintenance, design, project and construction services to commercial, industrial, government, public and private assets.

He is listed as the managing director on the company’s website, which also includes dozens of projects completed by the business at exclusive addresses in Sydney and Melbourne’s central business districts.

Afonso’s profile on the company website said he founded NPM in 2004, successfully building his building and construction business to a turnover of more than $60m annually and with over 150 staff and a contractor base of over 3000 nationally.

Afonso and three other men then started the company, NPM indigenous, which is a nationwide business specialising in project management, maintenance, design and construction services.

The company’s website says the founding members are “all experts in their respective fields and have combined their knowledge, experience and values to make a real difference towards an increased participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the construction sector”.