Bloody idiots: Dangerous drink drivers from the southeast
From a teacher with her toddlers, a media director, supermarket worker and a lady looking for love – Victorians from all walks of life are being caught driving under the influence of alcohol.
South East
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Driving under the influence is one of the most serious issues facing Australians.
Many people realise how stupid, selfish and downright deadly drink-driving can be.
But an irresponsible minority of motorists continue to do it, putting the safety of the community, from holiday makers to children and commuters — not to mention themselves — at serious risk.
Here’s a list of Victorians who have been punished in the courts for drink driving.
NUMBER’S UP
Five seems to be the magic number for Mornington motoring menace Chelsey Bleasby.
She was five times over when she crashed her car last year, five years after registering a similar times-five figure in another drink-driving disaster.
So fittingly she got a five-year ban.
The March 2020 incident was on the anniversary of her daughter’s death, but that was no excuse for causing a crash that left her in hospital.
She initially refused a breath test, but her blood sample registered .235.
Bleasby had only had her licence back for around a year after being banned for 48 months in 2015 for a reading of .255.
And these were far from her first drink-drive rodeos, having also been caught boozed-up behind the wheel in 2006 and in 2000.
She represented herself in court, saying she was combating her drinking problems and was getting treatment for her mental health issues.
The magistrate blasted her arrogance for driving while obviously so intoxicated, giving her an 18-month alcohol treatment corrections order and a $300 fine to go with the five year disqualification.
CARPARK CAPTURE
Cops were so concerned for the community’s safety Kevin Mills was told he must undergo a medical review, which he was unlikely to pass, before being let back on the road.
After he was nabbed driving into the Kings Creek Hotel carpark in Hastings officers couldn’t believe how drunk he was — he registered .243 — nor the reason he gave as to why he got behind the wheel that night.
In court his defence lawyer said he knew continued alcohol abuse would make his health deteriorate further.
She said his car was still in the impound yard and he has an “acceptance he won’t be driving again”.
The magistrate said it was worrying he was still drinking even though he knew it caused his brain injury.
“It’s lucky you were caught in the carpark,” he said.
“The risk you represented was huge, you need to think about what could have happened.”
He said a corrections order wouldn’t be appropriate due to his inability to comply and he had no financial means to pay any fine.
Instead he was placed on a two-year good behaviour bond and must continue medical treatment.
He was also disqualified from driving for two years, but is unlikely to ever be allowed to drive again.
LOCKED UP, NOT LOVED UP
But her evening ended up anything but romantic, instead she was put in the back of a divvy van and taken to the cop shop.
Ildi Romancz blew .218 after a passing police patrol had noticed the 56-year-old’s car parked at a strange angle in a Highett reserve.
The engine was off but the keys were still in the ignition and the car, which was unregistered at the time, was hot to the touch.
Romancz represented herself in court, saying once her date didn’t turn up she planned to sleep it off in the car.
The magistrate slammed her actions, saying she should have got a taxi, Uber or a lift home instead.
Romancz had to do 40 hours of unpaid work and was banned from driving for 21 months.
She didn’t elaborate to the court on any details about her date’s no-show.
PLASTERED PATRIOT
There’s no harm in enjoying a drink or two on Australia Day.
But downing so much goon you blow six times over the next day is surely a massive over-celebration.
That’s what happened to Sharon Maree Toebelmann, who had spent her evening knocking back wines with mates before registering a whopping .291 at 11am the following day.
Luckily for the community the Cranbourne 48-year-old part-time supermarket worker crossed paths with a booze bus before she could seriously hurt anyone.
But she should have known better, having also blown three times over in 2014.
Her defence lawyer said Toebelmann had been “getting on top” of her alcohol intake before the Australia Day situation occurred.
But the bemused magistrate said that can’t be true if she registered six times over the day after a session.
He said it was “astonishing” that someone with that extraordinarily high reading didn’t hurt someone or herself.
“It is nothing other than pure luck you are in this court and not in the county facing a culpable driving charge, or at the Croner’s,” he said.
Toebelmann was given an alcohol treatment corrections order with 50 hours of unpaid work and disqualified from driving for 48 months.
DISASTER MOVIE
For someone who made movies about wines and cars, Damien Lawrence Pierce really should have known better than to mix the two.
The Mornington Peninsula media director has an archive of drink-driving flops, this latest one being the fourth time he had been caught well over the limit.
The 59-year-old Tootgarook viticulture and vehicle video director, who owns Pierce Media, was picked up in Capel Sound with a reading of .103.
In court his defence lawyer said issues from Pierce’s traumatic teenage years, which contributed towards his drinking when he was younger, had resurfaced again which caused a “direct and clear nexus” to his recent alcohol use.
The magistrate said other than the drinking and driving he was a “high functioning member of society” but it was not OK to use booze as a coping mechanism and then get behind the wheel.
He was banned for 10 months and slapped with a $750 fine.
BAD ROLE MODEL
Cara Michelle Buchanan was nabbed blotto behind the wheel with her one-year-old and three-year-old in the back seat on two separate occasions in a two-month period.
Once she refused an evidentiary breath test after proving positive in a preliminary and in a second incident she had to be taken to hospital, with her blood sample reading four times over the limit.
In the first incident the 37-year-old from Edithvale crashed into road cones in Bonbeach, but despite testing positive in a roadside test she refused to accompany cops to the station, saying — without irony it seems — she was anxious about the safety of leaving her kids in the car.
In the second she rear-ended a stationary car in Seaford, again with her little ones in the back, and recorded .216.
She told police she was “emotional” and had “only had one beer”.
Her defence lawyer said she was going through a period of immense anxiety at the time, had used alcohol to self-medicate and had done rehab since the two crashes.
Buchanan, who had no prior convictions, was fined $2000 and disqualified from driving for three years.
