Daniel Brown in court: NT runaway guilty to drink driving charges, moved states to avoid the clink
A father of four has “run away” to the Northern Territory in an attempt to avoid jail after multiple bouts of drink driving landed him in trouble with the cops.
South East
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A Northern Territory man with a long history of poor driving has told a court he moved out of the state to avoid jail time in Victoria.
Daniel Brown, 35, pleaded guilty in the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on June 26 after a bout of drink driving had him hauled back in front of a court.
Appearing via video-link, the father-of-four told the court he was linked in from Moe, before later admitting he had recently relocated to Katherine in the Northern Territory.
“I moved up here for a fresh start,” he told the court.
“I made a deal with my wife after the last incident with the police that I had to pull my head in for our kids.”
Magistrate Greg Connellan said if he had been in Victoria, Brown would be behind bars for his latest offending.
“You’ve run away and gone to another state,” he said.
“And you’re going to get away with it because the court wants to finalise your matters.”
Police stopped Brown in Pakenham in November 2020 after they saw him driving a high-power vehicle on his Ps.
They discovered he should have had an interlock on his car but, after recording a positive breath test, he sped away.
Investigators caught up with Brown a month later but he told police his “friend from Sydney” had been using his car during that time period.
In an interview, Brown said he “would never drive without an interlocker being fitted to his car”.
In 2023, Brown was again in trouble with the cops after he was seen driving on the Western Fwy in Melton with a suspended licence.
The court heard he had failed to display P-plates and was again driving without an interlocker on his car.
Brown then blew .062 and admitted to having drunk three quarters of a Johnny Walker bottle before being pulled over.
He told police he didn’t know his licence was suspended and that he “didn’t think he was over the limit”.
The court heard Brown had bloodshot eyes and was slurring his words while being interviewed.
The final straw came in June last year, when Brown was again caught drink-driving and without an interlocker on his car.
After returning a positive preliminary breath test, he refused to undergo a full blood alcohol test telling police “I’m f----d anyway, don’t worry about it”.
Magistrate Connellan disqualified Brown’s licence for four years.
He was also fined $2500 with conviction.
