Olivia Wathen: real estate agent charged with drink driving
A court has heard how police caught a tearful real estate agent drink driving because she was driving on the wrong side of a road divided by a median strip after a night out.
St George Shire Standard
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A rising real estate agent has faced court for the second time in a year after she was busted drink driving while on a bond for possessing cocaine.
Olivia Wathen, 24, was charged with mid-range drink driving on February 25 this year after police noticed she was driving on the wrong side of a median strip on Gerrale St in Cronulla.
A subsequent breath test proved positive, with a breath analysis revealing a result of 0.08.
Wathen was already on a one-year conditional release order without conviction at the time for possessing cocaine, with the bond active until April this year.
Wathen made a tearful appearance at Sutherland Local Court where she pleaded guilty and represented herself for sentencing.
“I’d firstly like to apologise, my actions on the night were out of character,” Wathen said.
“I did only have two drinks before I got in the car and it wasn’t on my mind that I shouldn’t be driving – I didn’t feel drunk or intoxicated.”
Wathen asked for a short disqualification due to needing her licence to care for her grandmother and to avoid financial strain.
“I was tired and wasn’t thinking straight after a long day at work,” she told the court.
Magistrate Michael Connell said the community needed to be deterred from the dangerous conduct of drinking and driving.
“The court has to take into account general deterrence, people can’t drink and drive and place members of the community at risk,” Mr Connell said.
“It causes death on our roads … and your traffic history has a number of matters, it’s not an unblemished history, there are a number of breaches of the road rules.”
Mr Connell took no action on the drug possession conditional release order breach but convicted Wathen for the drink driving, disqualified her licence for three months and fined her $600.
She will also be subject to an interlock licence for 12 months when she can drive again.
A now-deleted LinkedIn profile reveals Wathen has previously worked with several high profile property agencies in the Shire and St George.
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