Darwin soldier Jayde Meeks busted drink-driving unregistered car on L plates

A Darwin soldier busted drink-driving on his L plates with no one in the passenger seat has learnt his fate in court. Find out what happened.

Jayde Meeks outside the Darwin Local Court after pleading guilty to being an L plate driver with no other person in the front passenger seat and driving with alcohol in his blood.

A Darwin soldier busted drink-driving on his L plates with no one in the passenger seat has avoided a conviction after admitting to his “stupidity”.

Jayde Meeks pleaded guilty in the Darwin Local Court to being an L-plate driver with alcohol in his blood and no one else in the car, and driving unregistered after recording a blood-alcohol reading of .048 last month.

When Chief Judge Elizabeth Morris asked the 27-year-old if there was “any reason you decided to drive as an L-plater without someone and after you’d been drinking”, he replied “Just stupidity, to be honest”.

But when Ms Morris asked if the serving infantryman was likely to get in trouble with the Army brass for the potentially “sackable offence”, he said “probably not”.

Meeks said he had “only recently” got his licence and had been overseas on deployment for the previous six months so “it just passed my mind” to register the car before he got behind the wheel to drive from the barracks to his partner’s place.

Chief Judge Elizabeth Morris said the 27-year-old was entitled to leniency as a soldier who had been ‘serving your country for the past three-and-a-half years’. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

In choosing not to record a conviction and fining Meeks $900 plus $450 in victims’ levies, Ms Morris said she took into account his early guilty plea, clean record and young age.

“You shouldn’t have been driving for all three reasons,” she said.

“You had been drinking as an L-plater, you didn’t have anyone else in the car and the car was unregistered, even one of those things should have told you not to drive but you did and you explained that the registration had run out because you’d been serving overseas.

“When people come before the court as first offenders they are entitled to some mitigation and leniency from the court because they are people of good character and while you haven’t come with references, I accept that you are a person of good character.

“You’re also someone that’s been serving your country for the past three-and-a-half years, including in overseas operations, so you’re also entitled to rely on that when I consider your character and the services you've provided to the community.”

Ms Morris said the low blood-alcohol reading meant “it wouldn’t have been an offence” if Meeks had had his full licence but “in relation to the drink-drive for L-platers, because of their newness to the road, that’s why we have the law that they’re supposed to be zero-zero”.

She also disqualified him from driving for three months.

Originally published as Darwin soldier Jayde Meeks busted drink-driving unregistered car on L plates