NSW Drink Driving & Traffic Offences

Joshua Crouch is paying a heavy price for drink-driving and says he will spend the next four years paying off his car, which he crashed on the Gorge Rd at Finch Hatton. “I'm paying off a car which I don't have,” he told the Mackay Magistrate's Court yesterday. “I've got four years of payments left.”

Crouch, a 23-year-old farm hand, was driving along Gorge Rd about 1am on July 30 when a cow ran out in front of him. He swerved to miss it and his car rolled and ended up on its roof.

Amazingly, a mate was driving another car behind him and the mate also flipped his car. It also ended up on its roof.
Emergency services attended the scene and found two cars on their roof, and a snapped power pole.Police were concerned about people being injured but no one was in the vehicles.

They were about to start a search of the area when Crouch and his friend, both badly shaken, came out of the bushes and admitted they were the drivers, prosecutor Constable Janelle Young said.Crouch admitted drinking in Finch Hatton before going for a drive.

Both young men were checked at the scene by ambulance offices but neither was injured.
“Police were amazed, considering how badly the vehicles were damaged,” Const Young said.

Both cars had to be towed from the scene.

Crouch pleaded guilty yesterday to drink-driving (0.130%).

He told the court he was extremely sorry for what had happened.

He was fined $900 and was disqualified from driving for six months.

 

In NSW a court is entitled to consider all the consequences to the offender that result from the offence in deciding what penalty to impose. Extra-curial punishments (punishment not given by a court) are normally taken into account by sentencing courts.

For example, Courts have taken into account the consequences of imprisonment on the military careers of serving soldiers including their loss of accrued pension rights and that a particular sentence would result in the offender losing their employment.

In the Article quoted the young man's financial situation would be taken into account when deciding what fine should be imposed. In this case the court would have only reduced the amount by a few hundred dollars.

Whilst this account is certainly not a transcript of what was said in Court, it illustrates an important point.

If all the gentlemen said was "sorry", he is not allowing the Court to understand the full impact that the disqualification will have on him or his family. Letters from people like employers go a long way to explaining the consequences that a Court should take into account