Catalina: Christopher Inwood blows four times over legal limit in employment celebrations

A man has lost a new job before he could even get started, when celebrations turned sour during drink driving escapades.

Christopher Inwood's drink driving escapades lost him his new job before he could even get started.

What started as a boozy day of celebrating a new job ended badly for a south coast man, whose drink driving escapades saw him lose the employment before he could even start.

The incident saw Christopher Inwood, 51, wind up in Batemans Bay Local Court on Monday where he pleaded guilty to high-range drink driving.

Documents tendered to the court reveal the Catalina man was celebrating his new employment in the earth moving industry.

The celebrations, which took place at a friend’s house on July 9, began at 1pm and went into the night. It was during this time when Inwood consumed five beers without a bite to eat.

Once celebrations had wrapped up, the newly-employed earth mover got behind the wheel of his Mercedes Benz with a friend in the passenger seat to drive home. However, he spotted a police vehicle and quickly turned onto Heron Rd, Catalina, to avoid them.

“The police watched as [Inwood] turned and drove off at speed,” court documents state.

Officers followed Inwood onto the road, where they pulled him over before completing a breath test which returned a positive reading of 0.214 – just over four times the limit.

Christopher Inwood leaving Batemans Bay Local Court after he was sentenced for drink driving.

In court on Monday, Inwood’s lawyer Samantha Henry said her client lost the new job due to the automatic licence suspension.

“His references clearly show he has a strong work ethic and has been working in this industry for quite some time, which he needs a licence for,” she said.

“This offence was quite uncharacteristic for him.”

Magistrate Doug Dick noted Inwood’s lack of prior offending, however, he said drink driving was always a dangerous risk to take.

“This is a very high reading,” he said.

“You took a terrible, terrible risk getting behind the wheel.”

Mr Dick said he would take the lack of offending, the positive references and the need for a licence to keep working in the industry when sentencing.

“I am going to reduce the fine because of these references and lack of offending and I’m only going to impose the minimum licence suspension,” he said.

Mr Dick convicted Inwood, fined him $2200, suspended his licence for six months and ordered him to have an interlock device installed in his car for six months when his licence returns.