Matthew David Seagg: Former elite policeman caught eight times over legal alcohol limit

An ex-policeman who was a part of an elite squad which provided security protection for foreign leaders has narrowly avoided full time jail after falling off his scooter multiple times while he was more than eight times the legal blood alcohol limit.

Matthew David Seagg leaving Downing Centre Local Court last Thursday.

An ex-policeman who was a part of an elite squad which provided security protection for foreign leaders has narrowly avoided full time jail after falling off his scooter multiple times while he was more than eight times the legal blood alcohol limit.

Former senior constable Matthew David Seagg’s reading was so high, Magistrate Daniel Covington told Downing Centre Local Court he’d only ever seen a higher reading on a coroner’s file after “someone was found dead” following a car accident.

The 50-year-old appeared at the court last Thursday after previously pleading guilty to high-range drink driving.

Agreed facts revealed Seagg was riding an motorcycle-type scooter on Kellett St, Potts Point between 2.40pm and 3.30pm on December 18 last year when one witness saw him “swerving over the road [and] unable to drive in a straight line”.

He then fell off his scooter twice with the witness picking up the scooter and parking it while noticing one wine bottle and three bourbon cans which had fallen out of the scooter.

Another witness, watching from her balcony, contacted police after hearing “crashing sounds” and saying she had seen a shopping bag next to Seagg with a bottle of vodka.

Police found Seagg smelling of “intoxicating liquor” while he was slurring his words, unable to provide his details and starting to fall asleep.

Matthew David Seagg leaving Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday, July 4.

Matthew Seagg a former policeman from the Dignitary Protection Unit leaving Manly Local Court in 2007.

Seagg was unable to blow into the tube and he was arrested before he told paramedics he had consumed “a lot” of alcohol.

He was taken to St Vincent’s Hospital where he was drifting in and out of consciousness.

Seagg’s blood sample returned weeks later and returned a 0.406 reading.

His lawyer told the court last week her client was an alcoholic and had checked himself into a detox shortly after the offence.

She said he was moving his scooter after an argument with his ex-partner and that conflict was a “trigger for his drinking”.

The lawyer said Seagg was now seeing a clinical psychologist and meeting with his GP weekly, given his “long struggle with alcohol” and battle with mental illness.

Despite conceding the threshold for imprisonment was crossed, Seagg’s lawyer said the term could be served in community by way of an intensive correction order (ICO) given he was eligible for community service.

The court heard Seagg had sold his scooter and had “no intention of driving a vehicle again”.

However, the police prosecutor said a “sentence of less than imprisonment” was inappropriate given his offending has escalated with three drink driving offences already on his record.

In sentencing Seagg, Magistrate Covington said it was a “serious example of this type of offence” and he was “really concerned about the reading”.

“I haven’t seen [a reading this high] in a criminal charge before,” he said.

Had Seagg been caught driving a motor vehicle, Mr Covington said he “probably wouldn’t” have imposed a 12 month intensive correction order. He was also disqualified from driving for nine months.