Rick Wales: Bolong man charged with mid-range drink driving at Bomaderry

A man’s boozy night on the beers came back to haunt him when he blew double the blood alcohol limit during a roadside breath test before lunchtime the following day.

Rick Wales leaving Nowra Local Court.

A man’s boozy night on the beers came back to haunt him when he blew double the blood alcohol limit during a roadside breath test before lunchtime the following day.

Rick Wales, 40, of Bolong, pleaded guilty to mid range drink driving at Nowra Local Court on Tuesday.

Police documents tendered to the court state on April 1 at 11.30am, Wales was driving along Meroo Rd, Bomaderry after having an “unknown number of beers” the night before.

Police officers patrolling the road began to follow Wales who abruptly pulled over to let them pass. This prompted the officers to pull up behind him and give him a breath test.

The test returned a reading of 0.108, resulting in officers arresting Wales and conveying him to the Nowra Police Station where he returned a second positive test.

Rick Wales appeared at Nowra Local Court on Tuesday.

At Nowra Local Court on Tuesday, Magistrate Lisa Viney said it was a “large reading for a morning”.

“You clearly had a lot to drink if you blew a reading this big at that time,” she said. “It’s fortunate no one was injured.”

Wales, who was self represented, told the court he had learnt his lesson from two previous drink driving matters, one in 2002 and one in 2012, which both led to convictions.

However, Ms Viney brushed off this claim and said: “If you really learnt your lesson, you wouldn’t be standing here today”.

Wales apologised, saying he “didn’t mean to drink drive”.

“I made a stupid decision to drive that morning when I was hungover,” he said. “I feel that I am going to pay deeply for this and I have no one to blame but myself.”

Wales was convicted and fined $750, had his licence disqualified for three months and, when his licence is returned, must have an interlock device installed to his vehicle.