Cairns man Geoffrey Stuart Emms crashes into three cars while four times over limit

A judge has noted “tequila is never a good idea” while sentencing a man with no licence for driving four times over the legal limit and crashing into three cars.

Geoffrey Emms, 42, pleaded guilty in Cairns Magistrates Court to dangerously operating a motor vehicle twice in one day.

A frightening evening of dangerous driving through Cairns that led to a passenger throwing themselves from the moving vehicle and three damaged cars has earned the unlicensed drink driver a two-year jail sentence.

Geoffrey Stuart Emms, 42, drove so dangerously through the streets of Cairns – twice in one evening – that his girlfriend threw herself from the moving car near Forest Gardens, before he went on to drink spirits in a carpark and crash into three cars in Cairns City.

Emms drank Jack Daniels and tequila before getting back into the car with a reading of .0218 and colliding with three cars, two of them stationary.

The woman suffered bruising and a fracture from Emms’s violence towards her inside the car, and from the fall from the moving vehicle, the court was told.

Police Prosecutor Sergeant Stewart Clyde-Smith said Emms had been drinking on October 26, 2024, when he and his girlfriend got into an argument.

Emms threatened to sell his girlfriend’s car and drove off in it, with her jumping into the car too, the court was told.

Sgt Clyde-Smith described the incident as a “very serious example of domestic violence”.

“Jumping out of the vehicle is, in my submission evidence of how fearful she was at the time,” Sgt Clyde-Smith said.

Emms pleaded guilty to eight charges including two counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, assault occasioning bodily harm, driving under the influence of liquor, disqualified driving, uninsured, unregistered and unlicensed driving.

Magistrate Sandra Pearson described Emms’ behaviour as “bizarre” and frightening for the victim, noting that “tequila … is never a good idea”.

Magistrate Sandra Pearson disqualified Emms from driving absolutely and sentenced him to two years imprisonment with a parole release date of 25 June 2025, which takes into account the 171 days Emms has been in custody on remand.

“This was a bizarre and quite long period of bad behaviour – it started 6pm in the evening and it sounds like you’d been drinking, not a lot, but to some extent and at some point, tequila got involved, which is never a good idea,” Magistrate Pearson said.

“(During the first episode), your driving was so bad that (the victim) decided it was actually better for her that she jumped from a moving car. She received some injuries from that but also from the blow you struck to her while she was still in the car.”

Police caught Emms in Cairns City on the evening of October 26, 2024, after he had crashed into three vehicles.

The court was told Emms drove to the city after his girlfriend jumped from car, where he downed some Jack Daniels and a bottle of tequila, then got back behind the wheel of the car.

Emms, who later returned a blood alcohol concentration reading of 0.28, was so drunk he rear-ended one car before ploughing into two parked cars near the intersection of Abbott Street and Shields Street in Cairns City when he tried to turn the car around.

Ms Pearson noted Emms had never held a driver’s licence but had seven prior convictions for disqualified driving, driving under the influence of liquor and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.

Originally published as Cairns man Geoffrey Stuart Emms crashes into three cars while four times over limit