GLADSTONE: Repeat DUI Drink Driving Whilst Unlicensed

I recently flew from Brisbane to Gladstone to represent a client charged with Repeat Drink Driving Whilst Unlicensed.

We service the entire state of Queensland, despite being based in Brisbane.

When I attend regional courts I like to film episodes of our YouTube series 'Wiseman Lawyers Ride Alongs'.

I do this partly to show potential clients such as yourself what it is exactly that we do, and partly to prove that we do and will literally go anywhere in Queensland.

I can get a 6am flight out of Brisbane and be standing on the steps of court at Cairns for example at 8:30am waiting for the doors to open, and then be back in Brisbane in time for lunch.

Please find the YouTube episode below, along with a transcript for your convenience.

Regards

Andrew Wiseman

Ph: 1300947352 Email:  andrew.wiseman@wisemanlawyers.com.au

RIDE ALONG:

Join Wiseman Lawyers Principal Solicitor Andrew Wiseman as he drives to Gladstone Magistrates Court. On the way to court, Andrew discusses his court matter for the day. On the way back to the airport, he explains the outcome and how it was achieved

GLADSTONE MAGISTRATES COURT:

Andrew Wiseman represents a client charged with DUI Drink Driving at Gladstone Magistrates Court.

 Don't lose your licence, Save Your licence. Do the wise thing. Call Wiseman Lawyers today 1300 947 352 or go to wisemanlawyers.com.au .

Hi, I'm Andrew Wiseman and welcome back to Wiseman Lawyers Court Ride Alongs, Gladstone edition.

Does your licence need saving? Do the wise thing. Call Wiseman Lawyers. Does your licence need saving? Do the wise thing. Call the Wiseman Team at Wiseman Lawyers.

Once again, my name's Andrew Wiseman, I'm the owner and Principal Solicitor of Wiseman Lawyers, Queensland's only truly dedicated traffic law firm. As I say in every episode, all we do is Queensland traffic law. And while you'll never see us in any state other than Queensland, we do literally appear at every court in Queensland. In recent weeks I've been at Normanton out in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Cairns, Moranbah, Blackwater, you name it, as you'll see from the images displaying on your screen we will and do go to literally any court in Queensland. Today I'm in sunny Gladstone, next week I'm back at Moranbah and we're having a brief breakout for Christmas but I'm back in Cairns the first week back and obviously we've got plenty of work in South East Queensland as well.

So today the young man from Gladstone who's engaged me, he's been charged with mid-range drink driving, .112. He does have a previous just outside of the last five years and he was also unlicensed to drive the vehicle which he was operating on the day in question. He was intercepted on a motor bike, he wasn't licensed to ride a motor bike. He had a car license only. So two issues, in addition to the drink driving he's also been charged with unlicensed driving. The fact that he wasn't the holder of a valid license for the vehicle that he was operating on the day in question means that he's not eligible to apply for a work licence.

You'll remember from previous episodes there's several prerequisites to applying for a work license. Being the holder of a valid drivers licence on the day in question, meaning the day you were intercepted, is one of them. So while he was the holder of a valid car licence, because he wasn't the holder of a valid motor bike licence he's not able to apply for a work licence today. Again, from previous episodes, you'll remember that because he's mid-range and he doesn't have any previous within the last five years, he faces a maximum disqualification today of 12 months, mandatory minimum three months. As always I'm gonna be pushing hard for the mandatory minimum for a number of reasons. He's an electrician, he lives in Gladstone, so the very role in itself regardless of where he lives is 100% drivers licence dependent.

Whether you're a domestic electrician or commercial electrician or you work in mining, as my client does, it goes without saying, if you work in some kind of building trade that requires urgent transportation to job sites such as electrician or plumber, your job is heavily or 100% drivers licence dependent. Also, the fact that he lives in Gladstone, it's obviously a regional location, public transport isn't what it is in the major cities, so while he's without a licence, he's going to be suffering in his job itself and his ability to get to and from job sites. He's a family man, he's got a fiancee, and three children, they all depend on him. His fiancee doesn't work so he is his family's sole financial provider.

So with that, his income, or with a prolonged reduction in income, his entire family is going to suffer and there's a number of other issues that I'm gonna raise with the magistrate in my efforts to get it down to the mandatory minimum of three months and I'll summarize those in a bit of detail after I come out of court. All right, so I'm just pulling up to the court house now. So, I'll head on in once I've found a park and I'll see you back in the car after I come out and I'll let you know how it went.

Mark of Holland Park writes, "I would like to express a huge thank you to yourself and your team for a great outcome for my case. When the magistrate originally made up his mind and was not going to move, I thought there was no way he would change his mind. But a bit of perseverance and professionalism from Andrew, we got him down. Excellent performance Andrew and I will definitely be recommending Wiseman Lawyers to others in my situation and an awesome result and again thank you for your reassurance through it all and in the awesome outcome."

All right. Job done. Now, when I said the client had one previous DUI just outside of five years ago, well you don't always get the full story when you're given your instructions. He actually had two previous DUIs, one of them was just outside of the five years, and one of them was the very year before that, so this was the third mid-range DU. in about seven years so that did complicate the matter somewhat. So, when that information was, well the other one was interstate, that's why I wasn't given it at the first instance by the police and I mean understandably the client forgot about it, they've obviously gone on with their lives since those earlier offenses. But, yeah, unlike when I went in when I thought I was dealing with one previous, he's got as I said two previous DUIs. The mandatory, minimum, and maximum doesn't change, but as I said, the history's there before the magistrate, the magistrate's got more reasons to give a higher disqualification if there's more history so I did on the fly change my submission somewhat.

Instead of going in hard for the mandatory minimum of three months, I did instead put a window of three to four months to the magistrate. The magistrate accepted that and gave a four month disqualification. So, four months. I neglected to mention earlier, too, with the second charge of unlicensed driving there's no mandatory disqualification period, but magistrates have a general discretion to disqualify for reasons such as this. There's no maximum so technically if the magistrate wanted to, she could have given him a further disqualification for the unlicensed driving of a lifetime one technically. It's unlikely, but technically she could have given that but it isn't uncommon for people to get up to six months for unlicensed driving charge not withstanding the fact that there is no mandatory minimum.

But I was able to persuade the magistrate for that offence to give a fine only, so no disqualification and he got four months only for the drink driving offence. All right, well that's me done in Gladstone so heading back to the airport now. Next episode will be filmed on Thursday, back in Moranbah. We've had a tonne of regional work but Moranbah seems to want us back time and time again, so back in Moranbah. You would have seen earlier in the episode the images from previous times where we've been there, but a full episode of Wiseman Lawyers Court Ride Alongs being filmed on Thursday. That's actually a drug driving offence, but I'll go into a bit more detail on the day about the charge, the facts and situation, and the outcome that I expect to get but all right, once again thanks for watching and until next time take care.