booze and bloody idiots

And so we have another blitz against mugs who drink and drive. The ‘bloody idiot’ brigade.

In Victoria there is a new radio and television campaign warning crafty drivers that if they drink too much and then get behind the wheel they won’t be safe and avoid detection just because they know the back roads home. Just because they think they know where the booze buses will be.

The new breathalyser campaign will hit suburban streets and country roads. And if you ignore the media warnings then you truly are a bloody idiot.

But yet again I have to ask the question: What does it matter how many drunken fish the coppers catch in their nets if the courts don’t follow through?  If drinking and driving is still treated as a misdemeanour.

You can pick up the papers any day or turn on the TV news (if the story even rates a mention) and get the latest examples of  drunks behind the wheel who are treated with kid gloves in the courts. Even chronic serial offenders.

A couple of recent examples. Barry Anthony Hughes aged 45 of Woori Yallock is finally behind bars today. He has been dubbed the state’s most dangerous drink-driver. And with good reason. He has 19 convictions for drinking and driving. Nineteen! He also has nearly thirty convictions for driving while disqualified and ten for refusing to take a breath test.

In his latest clash with the law he was jailed for 15 months with a nine-month non-parole period for refusing a breath test and driving while disqualified. He had the audacity to appeal despite his appalling anti-social record and was granted bail.

He’s now been sent to jail but County Court Judge Roy Punshon  knocked one month off the non-parole period. So he will serve only eight months in jail. And no doubt get out and get pissed and drive again.

Hughes’ lawyer Jane Dixon, as some sort of plea for mercy and a short sentence, used the fact that Hughes had spent 23 months in jail on ‘unrelated charges’ that would not be proceeded with. How is that relevant? Also, her client had had a heart attack. Probably alcohol-induced.

This potential killer on wheels deserved no mercy.

Then there is the case of a 38-year-old Belgrave man who for some reason has not been named.  He was the driver in a two car accident that killed his passenger and injured a woman and her two daughters in the other car.

A preliminary breath test after the accident showed he was over the limit. The same man had failed a blood-alcohol test earlier in the day. He should have the book thrown at him.

And finally the socialite lush. Melbourne City councillor, Fiona Snedden. With one drink-driving offence under her belt she was charged with refusing a breath test outside the Botanical Hotel in South Yarra after her BMW literally brushed another car.

Admittedly she was fined $1000 and had her licence suspended for four years and was warned another offence could see her inside. But Magistrate Paul Smith said there was nothing in Cr. Snedden’s behaviour to lead anyone to believe she was drunk.

Well, Police believed she had been drinking and she had originally been charged with failing to give her name and address and being drunk in a public place. And people who refuse a breath test usually haven’t been sipping soda water all night.

And listen to her slick lawyer Ron Gipp’s grounds to leniency.  He called Snedden the ‘quintessential single mum’ who was raising her seven-year-old daughter alone after her husband, celebrity chef and restaurateur Bill Marchetti walked out.

She was in a precarious financial position. Getting by on a $25,000 stipend from the City Council (he didn’t mention the lurks and perks) and $115 a fortnight from the Government and struggling to pay the $550 a week rent for her South Yarra apartment.

Yep Mr. Gipp. That’s a quintessential single Mum alright. They all drive a BMW, get $25,000 a year plus exes from the ratepayers, have a $550 a week South Yarra apartment and can afford to drink at the Botanical – where one cocktail can cost you $15. That’s more than double the cost of the fare for the cab home Councillor Snedden should have taken.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2006