Abraham Aleer Elia Garang blew more than three times the limit at 6am on the drive home

A 35-year-old who blew more than three times the limit driving home after a big night tried to close the door on police during the traffic stop. The magistrate was not impressed.

A driver who blew more than three times the legal limit when pulled over by police at 6 o’clock in the morning has been ordered off the roads for six months.

Abraham Aleer Elia Garang was seen by a police patrol on Glenvale Road about 6am, September 18, swerving his car across the lane and speeding over the 60km/h limit, Toowoomba Magistrates Court was told.

After he struggled to negotiate a roundabout, police pulled him over, police prosecutor Anita Page told the court.

However, when police asked him to get out of the car, the 35-year-old tried to restart the vehicle and tried to close the driver’s side door on the police sergeant, she said.

Abraham Aleer Elia Garang leaves Toowoomba Courthouse on October 18, 2022.

Eventually, he was taken out of the car and put in handcuffs and taken to the police station, the court was told.

Ms Page said Elia Garang returned a breath/alcohol reading of 0.17.

He pleaded guilty to driving while under the influence of liquor and to obstructing police.

His solicitor Chelsea Saldumbide, of McConnell Saldumbide Lawyers, told the court her client had arrived in Australia in 2003 as a refugee but his wife and child remained in Kenya.

On this particular occasion, her client had been drinking with a friend and had stayed overnight but, for some reason, he thought he would be okay to drive, she said.

The 35-year-old had been working for an abattoir for the past 13 years and could pay a fine, Ms Saldumbide submitted.

Magistrate Kay Phillipson told Elia Garang that he should have been nowhere near a steering wheel let alone driving in that condition.

However, noting he had no offences of like nature in his history, Ms Phillipson fined Elia Garang a total $950 and disqualified him from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for six months.