Shannon Leanne Weribone fined and disqualified for sitting in driver’s seat recharging phone

The 35-year-old told police she had no intention of driving but she was in the driver’s seat so deemed to be “in charge” of the vehicle.

The 35-year-old found out one doesn’t have to be driving to be fined and disqualified for being over the limit.

Merely sitting in the car recharging her phone battery was enough to cost a Toowoomba woman her driver’s licence for six months.

Police patrolling Newtown about 2.20am, September 16, had spotted two people sitting in a car in the Newtown Hotel car park, Toowoomba Magistrates Court heard.

The officers found Shannon Leanne Weribone sitting in the driver’s seat, police prosecutor Sergeant Tim Hutton told the court.

Asked what she was doing, the 35-year-old answered she was recharging her phone so she could call a taxi to take her home, he said.

Told because she was seated in the driver’s seat with the keys in the ignition, she was in fact “in charge” of the vehicle, Weribone had become argumentative and initially refused to provide a sample of breath for testing, arguing she wasn’t driving.

Warned she would be charged with failing to provide a sample of breath on police direction, Weribone then complied and returned a positive reading for alcohol.

Back at the police station, her breath was analysed to have a breath/alcohol level of 0.141, Sgt Hutton said.

Weribone pleaded guilty to being in charge of a vehicle while over the middle alcohol limit but not over the high alcohol limit while on a probationary licence.

Her solicitor Michael Corbin asked the court to accept his client’s explanation that she had no intention of actually driving the vehicle.

His client had been working in weed spraying but would not be able to do that while her licence was disqualified, he said.

Noting she had one previous drink-driving matter in the last five years, Magistrate Graham Lee fined Weribone $750 and disqualified her from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for six months.