Aaron Jay Terry: Cleveland father-of-four done for drink driving

A father-of-four’s decision to stop driving although after his run-in with the law has left a magistrate confused. Read what she had to say.

A Cleveland dad who voluntarily stopped driving for five months after blowing twice the legal alcohol limit, making his pregnant wife to drive him to work for five months, has left a magistrate scratching her head.

Aaron Jay Terry, 27, pleaded guilty in Cleveland Magistrates Court on Tuesday to driving over the general alcohol limit but not over the middle alcohol limit.

A police prosecutor said Terry was pulled over for a roadside breath test early in the morning on November 22 last year on Hope Island Rd in the Gold Coast suburb of Helensvale.

The court heard Terry’s blood alcohol level was 0.097.

Terry voluntarily banned himself from driving, even though technically he was allowed back behind the wheel 24 hours after the incident.

Magistrate Deborah Vasta said she couldn’t quite understand why he inflicted a self-imposed driving ban.

“The flow-on effect has been that your poor pregnant partner had to get up and drive you to and from work, which I think has been a lot on her,” Ms Vasta said.

“I’m just not quite sure why you made that decision … (and) put your partner through all of this, but anyway you guys will work it out.”

Aaron Jay Terry. Source: Facebook.

Terry’s lawyer said he was suffering from mental health issues linked to a previous job he had at the time and said his behaviour was “totally out of character”.

“He’s been driving for 10 years, (this was his) first offence.”

The court heard Terry, who welcomed his fourth child with his partner earlier this month, had just started working in a new job as a digital printer.

He has three other children from a previous relationship.

Ms Vasta disqualified Terry from driving for a minimum of one month and fined him $1000.

Originally published as Aaron Jay Terry: Cleveland father-of-four done for drink driving