Belle Emilie Morrison: Aspiring property manager fined for drink driving while on P-plates

An eastern suburbs P-plater caught drink driving the week before Christmas claimed the positive breath test was due to eating a slice of tiramisu. But a magistrate was not convinced.

Morrison leaving Waverley court.

A former private school girl from the affluent eastern suburbs blinked back tears outside court after she was sentenced for registering an alcohol reading while on her P-plates the week before Christmas.

Belle Emilie Morrison, 20, of Vaucluse, was sentenced for driving with alcohol present in her breath while she was a Provisional (P2) licence holder at Waverley Local Court on Friday.

Morrison previously entered a guilty plea to the charge.

According to police documents tendered to court, police stopped Morrison on O‘Sullivan Rd in Bellevue Hill about 10.20pm on Friday December 16 after noticing her car’s lights were not on.

Morrison outside Waverley court.

When questioned about why her P plates were not displayed on the car and the headlights were off, the Vaucluse woman told police she was driving a loan car and had forgotten to put her plates on.

Police performed a preliminary breath test that returned a positive result and was arrested.

Morrison was taken to Waverley police station for breath analysis which showed she had 0.036g of alcohol in 210L of breath.

When questioned by police, the property assistant said she hadn’t had a drink.

“She denied consuming any liquid liquor, instead advising that she had consumed an amount of tiramisu (traditionally containing alcohol) at a restaurant”, police documents tendered to court state.

The young property professional was sentenced at Waverley Local Court

Morrison’s lawyer asked the court to take into account the property professional’s youth and inexperience, urging the magistrate to consider a non-conviction for the young woman.

“She has youth, and regrettably that’s when you make mistakes,” the lawyer said.

Morrison appeared distressed when she left Waverley court on Friday.

“She’s also young and dumb,” he said.

But Magistrate Clare Farnan said from the perspective of the court the matter was simple.

“She‘s a P-plater and she had a tipple,” the magistrate told the court, adding it was astounding that amid strong messaging on the law’s zero tolerance for alcohol consumption for people learning to drive, young people continued to disregard the rules.

Ms Farnan further remarked it was unlikely the property manager’s consumption of an Italian dessert, sometimes made with liquor such as Marsala and Amaretto, had caused the alcohol reading.

“I would infer she had in fact had something to drink,” she told the court.

Waverley Local Court

Before handing down her sentence Ms Farnan said she could see Morrison was “a hardworking young woman” and noted she was aware a conviction risked her losing her current position at a property firm as an inspector.

Ms Farnan convicted Morrison for recording a blood alcohol reading while on her P-plates, fined her $300 and disqualified her licence for three months.