Kookai founder Danielle Vagner avoid jail over drunken South Yarra hit-run
Fashion queen and Kookai founder Danielle Vagner has avoided jail over a shocking drunken hit-run smash which saw her driving on the rims of her unregistered Range Rover before crashing into a South Yarra home in broad daylight.
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Kookai fashion queen Danielle Vagner has avoided jail over a shocking drunken hit-run smash which occurred in broad daylight.
Vagner, 54, from Toorak, was instead placed on a 12-month Community Corrections Order where she must complete 80 hours of unpaid community work, drug and alcohol treatment and a road trauma awareness program.
VAGNER DIDN’T THINK HIT-RUN WAS ‘A BIG DEAL’
She was also banned from getting behind the wheel for a year.
The style mogul, worth about $100 million, was almost two times over the limit when one witness described her as being “off her head” as she drove her unregistered Range Rover on its rims into a home in South Yarra on June 12 last year.
Vagner claimed she had consumed three glasses of rose wine at lunch, before attending a dentist appointment.
But sentencing her in the Melbourne Magistrates Court today, Magistrate Peter Mealy said it was “implausible” to have a blood alcohol reading of .099 per cent three hours after consuming just three glasses of alcohol.
He accepted she had been adversely affected by a combination of alcohol with Valium tablets she had popped the night before the crash.
In disqualifying her licence for a year, Mr Mealy warned the mother of two: “You must not drive during that period. If you do … you’ll be liable to a term of imprisonment.”
Vagner, shielded by her two children and ex-husband Rob Cromb, who co-owns the Kookai women’s clothing franchise with her, would not answer questions as she left court.
The sentence comes after she last month pleaded guilty to seven charges, including drink-driving, dangerous driving and failing to stop.
For charges of driving an unroadworthy and unregistered vehicle, Mr Mealy slapped Vagner with an $800 fine.
The prosecution dropped three more serious charges, including reckless conduct endangering serious injury.
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WHAT COULD HAVE PULLED TRIGGER ON GUN MURDERS
CCTV footage captured Vagner struggling to drive her SUV through South Yarra streets after hitting the Cromwell Crescent home about 4.50pm.
Both front airbags had been deployed and a front tyre torn off to expose the rim.
In phone footage filmed by a witness, a man can be heard yelling at her: “Stop driving, you are off your head.”
When she was arrested moments later, she told police she left the scene of the accident as she “didn’t think it was a big deal”.
The court heard she had paid the homeowners a confidential cash settlement to repair the damage.