Ajaykumar Patel: RE/MAX Consultants broker principal guilty of high-range drink-driving
A southeast Queensland real estate agency principal, who also owns a pair of restaurants, was detected driving just shy of four times the legal blood-alcohol on the Gold Coast, a court has heard.
Police & Courts
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A southeast Queensland real estate boss was detected driving just shy of four times the legal blood-alcohol on the Gold Coast, a court has heard.
Mansfield man Ajaykumar Ghanshyambhai Patel, 49, known professionally as Ajay Patel, who is the broker principal of Booval-based RE/MAX Consultants, appeared in Southport Magistrates Court on Tuesday, May 6.
He pleaded guilty to a single charge of driving under the influence of liquor (i.e. high-range).
The court heard the offence was detected via random roadside testing at Surfers Paradise at about 1.20am on April 22.
He returned a reading of 0.195 per cent blood-alcohol content – nearly four times the legal limit.
He told officers he had drunk an unknown amount of whisky at the office prior to getting behind the wheel.
The court was told this was Patel’s second drink-driving offence, the first occurring in 2019.
Defence lawyer Sarah Churches-Kennedy told the court her client migrated from his native India alongside his wife, two children, and parents in 2002 to New Zealand, then to Australia in 2012.
In addition to his real estate career, he also owned the Burrito Bar at Silkstone, and an Indian restaurant at Surfers Paradise.
Ms Churches-Kennedy said her client had completed the Queensland Traffic Offenders Program since being charged, and stressed that it was not his manner of driving that brought him to police attention, notwithstanding the very high reading.
Magistrate Pamela Dowse told Patel he “should know better” than to drink driving, in light of his professional career and high standing in the community.
Nothing he has already been off the roads since being charged last month, Ms Dowse disqualified Patel for eight months and fined him $1500.
No conviction was recorded.
Patel will also be required to fit and use an interlock device for a year after his disqualification period ends.
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