Bendigo lawyer Louise Sarah Hanby D’Wynn pleads guilty to drink driving almost five times the limit

A Bendigo lawyer’s drunken car crash in her dead client’s car remains a mystery after she was busted driving “incoherent” almost five times the blood alcohol limit in a smashed up Yaris.

Bendigo lawyer Louise Sarah Hanby D’Wynn, 59, pleaded guilty to high range drink driving and crashing her client's car.

What a Bendigo lawyer crashed into while driving her dead client’s car almost five times the blood alcohol limit without a licence remains a mystery.

Louise Sarah Hanby D’Wynn pleaded guilty Maryborough Magistrates’ Court on Thursday to careless driving and drink driving.

Police intercepted the 59-year-old boozehound on Bendigo-Maryborough Rd at midnight on June 25, 2023 doing 50km/h in a 100km/h zone.

Louise Hanby D'Wynn, a well-known Rotarian and Bendigo lawyer pleaded guilty to a drink driving crash. Picture: Supplied.

The respected senior member of the Maryborough Rotary Club was found behind the wheel “incoherent and (smelling) of intoxicating liquor”.

The drunk returned a BAC of 0.245, telling police at the scene “she had a couple”.

The white Toyota Yaris she was driving — the property of a deceased client’s estate she was managing — had obviously been in an accident, with “severe damage” to the front of the car and along the drivers side, the court heard.

Hanby D’Wynn claimed to have no memory of the 18 hours leading up to the crash, saying “she may have consumed” a hallucinogenic called “Blue Lotus” at a client’s house while she was still a solicitor.

There was no investigation into what Louise Sarah Hanby D’Wynn crashed her client’s car into while driving with a BAC of 0.245 in June 2023. Picture: Victoria Police.

The court heard Hanby D’Wynn had been the principal practitioner of her law firm Winn Legal, with a career spanning 32 years, before her firm was liquidated.

ASIC documentation reveals the deputy commissioner of taxation applied for a wind up order on February 21, 2024 before liquidators were appointed on May 15 that year.

She is now unemployed and no longer practising the law, and was looking for alternative employment while she volunteered at a Maryborough charity.

Magistrate Jarrod William said the circumstances surrounding her “very high range” drink driving crash were “really concerning”, saying it was “surprising” Hanby D’Wynn hadn’t been charged with leaving the scene of an accident.

Louise Hanby D'wynn told a court she did not have an issue with alcohol. Picture: Supplied.

“There was an accident without any real explanation for what happened,” he said.

“If another vehicle was collided into, whether it was an animal, or a tree or a person – who knows?”

Hanby D’Wynn — through a legal aid lawyer — claimed she did not have any issues with alcohol.

However Mr Williams said “clearly she does” referencing a previous 2021 drink driving conviction.

The prosecution said Hanby D’Wynn was a “danger to herself and others unless she gets assistance”.

Mr Williams ordered Hanby D’Wynn be assessed for a community corrections order, saying he wouldn’t sentence her to unpaid community hours, but instead was considering a therapeutic community corrections order.

She will return to court for sentencing at a later date.