Ramazan Sarikaya: Engadine kebab shop owner sentenced for high range drink driving

A small-business owner was caught driving with a 0.226 blood alcohol reading after he hit a guard rail and flipped his car onto the roof in Sydney’s south.

Ramazan Sarikata was caught driving with .226 blood alcohol reading on January 2, 2023 after he hit a guard rail and flipped his car onto its roof in Menai. Picture: Ashleigh Tullis

An Engadine kebab shop owner was caught driving four times over the legal alcohol limit reading after he hit a guard rail and flipped his car onto the roof, a court has heard.

Ramazan Sarikaya, 57, was sentenced upon pleading guilty to high-range drink driving in Sutherland Local Court on Tuesday. It was his fourth conviction for drink driving.

Agreed facts tendered to court state about 12am on January 2, Sarikaya was driving on Alfords Point Rd and Old Illawarra Rd, Menai in a Nissan X-Trail and collided with a side guard rail which caused his car to flip onto its roof.

Sarikaya was able to exit the car and was treated by NSW Fire and Rescue members who were first on scene before police arrived a short time later.

He told police he was driving, had a current licence and returned a positive roadside breath test before he was arrested. Sarikaya was taken to St George Hospital and a sample confirmed a blood-alcohol level of 0.226, more than four times the legal limit.

Ramazan Sarikaya was sentenced to an intensive correction order in Sutherland Local Court.

The court heard Sarikaya had consumed 10 drinks and was upset because he was unable to see his children that night.

He owns a kebab shop at Engadine and claimed he needed a drivers licence to travel from his Auburn home to work.

The court heard Sarikaya wrote an apology letter to the court where he took responsibility for his actions and claimed it would not happen again. He has since attended alcohol counselling and psychological treatment.

Magistrate Philip Stewart said Sarikaya’s actions were a “very, very serious form of drink driving” and noted he had a terrible driving history.

The court heard Sarikaya had convictions for two mid-range drink driving offences in 1995 and 2003 and low-range in 2007, with Mr Stewart noting he hadn’t learnt his lesson from those prior incidents.

Mr Stewart convicted Sarikaya, fined him $2000 and sentenced him to a jail sentence to be served in the community on an six-month intensive correction order.

Sarikaya was disqualified from driving for six months, must have an interlock device in his car and complete 50 hours of community service.