Drazic Hughes Furner found behind the wheel four times over legal limit convicted of high range drink driving

‘It’s your lucky day’ a magistrate said after a paperwork error was the only thing that kept a 19-year-old alcoholic from a mandatory jail term.

The only thing that kept a 19-year-old alcoholic out of jail was a paperwork error after the teenager faced court charged with high-range drink driving for the third time in 17 months.

Drazic Hughes Furner appeared in Toowoomba Magistrates Court from the watch-house after he was arrested and charged with high range drink driving, driving while disqualified, using a vehicle without number plates and obstructing police.

The court was told police were called to Primrose Street, South Toowoomba about 8.26pm on October 13 where they found Furner behind the wheel of a Toyota Landcruiser.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Tim Hutton said police were told Furner had driven a short distance from a Long Street address only minutes earlier.

At 8.35pm police conducted a roadside breath test which returned a positive result and Furner was taken to Toowoomba Watch-house where he returned a reading of 0.217.

The court was told when police inquired about Furner’s health he became aggressive and started to behave in a threatening manner.

Drazic Hughes Furner, 19, was convicted of high range drink driving in Toowoomba Magistrates Court on October 14, 2021.

Checks of the vehicle Furner revealed it was missing registration plates, and that Furner’s licence had been disqualified until 2022.

While reviewing his criminal history, magistrate Graham Lee found his traffic record had convictions for high range drink driving on April 28 2021, and May 14 2020, however only one of those was included in the Notice of Intention to Allege Previous Convictions tendered by the prosecution.

“It’s critical here, because if it’s the third time he has to spend time in jail,” Mr Lee said.

After sifting through the documents Sergeant Hutton said he was “bound by the material” he had been given and conceded the court could only rule on what had been provided despite the “obvious error”.

Drazic Hughes Furner, 19, was convicted of high range drink driving in Toowoomba Magistrates Court on October 14, 2021.

On Furner’s behalf duty solicitor Matt Gemmell told the court that despite his client’s young age it had already been significantly impacted by alcohol and he was working to overcome his addiction.

“He has recently become unemployed from his job as a machine operator as a result of his alcoholism which is so clearly evident in my client’s history,” he said.

“There’s a very real demolition of his life that’s taken place in respect to that alcoholism, and he accepts that. As soon as he sobered up he realised the mistake that he had made.”

Mr Lee said the incorrect paperwork meant it was Furner’s “lucky day”, as the error was the only thing that kept him out of jail.

“You have a gross problem with alcoholism and I fully endorse the comments made by the prosecutor … this is behaviour the community does not tolerate,” he said.

“It’s your lucky day because if that (May 2020) conviction was in that Notice of Intention to Allege Previous I would have had to have, as a matter of law, impose some form of imprisonment on you.”

Furner was convicted and sentenced to two years probation, as well as disqualified from holding a driver’s licence for 39 months.