QLD Drink Driving first offence

Hi everyone,

I will explain the situation before I ask any questions.

My boyfriend was 'done' for drink driving two weeks ago. After a big night him and some friends thought it would be fun to drive their golf buggy around the front of their house (it is a VERY small town and a little street). Well the cops pulled him over and arrested him and took him into the larger town. There he blew a ready of .16 (disgusting I know). and as you would know he instantly got his license suspended and has to go to court in 2-3 weeks time.

This is his first offense of drink driving as we are both (usually) strongly against it as it is so stupid and reckless. Apart from this he has only has one speeding fine (3 points) over a year ago and apart from that he is clean.

Been a golf buggy and just out the front of his house I hope not too much damage will be done as we are both 20 trying to cope with uni and work. He is still on his green p's

With all this in mind my questions are:

1: Is jail time a possibility?

2: What are the penalties usually for this kind of situation?

3: Is seeking legal advice necessary (would it impact the harshness of his punishment)?

Thank you for all that help me! Hopefully this is a wake up call for him and it never happens again!

Yes a foolish exercise, but I'm sure he knows that.

1. No

2, A fine and license suspension for a period of time.

3. A solicitor may be able to mitigate the penalty, but the court have a mandated range of penalties and there is not much room to move.

There are differences State to State so if you can tell us where this happened we may be able to better reply.

Take a look at this site.

Suggest to him that he consider undertaking the Under the Limit program, now, so he will learn something and help mitigate the sentence.

With that reading he will not qualify for a work licence, so if his work requires him to drive he better start looking for a new job. If not he better buy a push bike to get to work, or become conversant with the bus timetable.

He may be required to install an Alco Lock in his car before he can get his licence back once the suspension is served, for some information on this see this site. The alco lock will cost him a couple of thousand, so he better start saving for that.

There is some further information on this site however with that high range he will be without a licence for at least six months possibly up to 12 months, he will be at least $1000 poorer, possibly $2000.

Originally posted by AsiaOilDude and the police never saw him on a public road, I don't believe the charge will stick

The technical term is a 'road related area'. This is given a very broad definition. Dont jump to any comclusions based on this advice.

Originally posted by GoodGirlfriend Thanks again for any input and advice and thank you for no judgement!

We all make mistakes, the important thing is to learn from them, wish him all the best and suggest he get started on that under the limit course.