An automotive apprentice who was involved in two high-level drink-driving crashes and a string of other driving offences will spend the next six months in weekend jail.
But 21-year-old Robert Saunders, of Goulburn, was commended for his attempts to turn his life around.
The ACT Magistrates Court heard Saunders had an alcohol reading of .254 and had a passenger in his car when he crashed on a residential Canberra street about 11pm on January 17. He was driving an uninsured, unregistered car with a fake licence plate and no P-plates on display. But just four months later he was spotted ''tearing around'' drunk on a motorcycle in April and ran from police who tried to pull him over. Saunders crashed the bike, leaving him with a punctured lung, and was found to have an alcohol level of .187.
He pleaded guilty to 10 driving offences.
The court heard Saunders and his mother were living in a caravan in Goulburn while he searched for work in the automotive industry, handing out his resume to more than 30 businesses.He had sought treatment for his alcohol problems and had several job offers pending as an apprentice. Saunders told the court the offences had occurred while he was spending time with friends who were a bad influence on him.
He said he had cut off social contact with those friends, including one young man whom he had known all his life, and now only spoke to them infrequently over the phone.
Saunders said he would travel from Goulburn to Canberra every Friday to carry out weekend jail stints and his mother was prepared to ferry him to and from work during the week. Magistrate Lorraine Walker said Saunders appeared to show greater insight into his offending actions than many other people who appeared before her. She acknowledged Saunders had made significant attempts to turn his life around and praised his mother for her ''heroic efforts'' to support her son. Ms Walker said the string of driving offences merited a jail term, particularly the second crash which represented a ''contumacious breach of court orders''. She sentenced Saunders to six months' in weekend jail and a total of 300 hours of community service. Ms Walker placed the young man on a two-year good-behaviour order and fined him a total of $950.
''There's a lot to be done to clear the slate,'' she told Saunders. ''But it looks like you're learning a lesson.''
Source: The Canberra Times 8.9.2011
