Dalby man Guy Robert Mitchell sentenced in court for drink driving

A drunk driver whose car caught alight after crashing on a Dalby street while almost three times the limit went in search of a fire extinguisher, but returned to the scene of a crime with more beers, a court has been told.

Guy Robert Mitchell sentenced for drink driving and driving without due care on a Dalby Street.

A man revealed to a Western Downs court that he continued to drink alcohol after causing a car crash that set a vehicle on fire when it crashed into a fence.

Guy Robert Mitchell appeared in Dalby Magistrates Court on September 26 after he claimed to have accelerated “too heavily” along a regional road while almost three times the legal limit.

Police prosecutor Chris Hutchins said police were called to a single-vehicle crash on Jerome St in Dalby on September 11.

Witnesses told the police that the driver had fled the scene, however Mitchell returned and told police that he had been drinking Great Northerns during the day before getting behind the wheel to drive to a friend’s house.

“(Mitchell) said he lost control of the vehicle when he accelerated too heavily in a 100km/h zone and hit a barbed wire fence,” Sergeant Hutchins said.

“The vehicle caught fire and he told police he was driving in an aggressive manner.”

The court was also told the man ran to a nearby friend’s house to find a fire extinguisher and when he failed, ran to his own property to find one and grabbed two beers which he consumed before getting back to the crime scene where multiple emergency services awaited him.

“I did drink afterwards,” Mitchell confessed.

“I ran back grabbed two beers and a fire extinguisher.”

Dalby police took the man to the station for a second breath test where he returned a reading of 0.125.

Mitchell, who represented himself in court, pleaded guilty to drink driving and driving without due care.

He was fined $600 and disqualified from driving for three months.

Originally published as Dalby man Guy Robert Mitchell sentenced in court for drink driving