A 56-year-old Cowra man has been fined $300, disqualified from driving for 12 months followed by an interlock period of 12 months and given a nine-month supervised intensive corrections order at Cowra Local Court.
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Barry John Kennedy, of Taragala Street, was before the court for sentencing after driving a motor vehicle during a disqualification period and special category driver drive with special range PCA, to which he had plead guilty to earlier in the year.
According to police facts, around 11.50am on July 24, 2020, police were conducting patrols of Cowra when they observed a Kawasaki ZR550B motorcycle travelling west on the Mid Western Highway.
Police stopped the vehicle and introduced themselves to the rider, Kennedy, informing him he had been stopped for random testing.
Kennedy told police he didn't have a licence, stating: "I think I'm disqualified" and provided his details to police.
Police checks confirmed his licence was endorsed as disqualified from January 27, 2011 to March 27, 2029.
Kennedy was then subjected to a breath test which returned a positive reading.
He was then arrested and taken to the Cowra Police Station for a breath analysis which returned a reading of 0.038 grams of alcohol in 210 litres of breath.
In relation to his drinking, he told police he had consumed six stubbies of Victoria Bitter from 2pm and 10pm on July 23.
Kennedy's ALS solicitor told the court, since the offending, his client had taken steps to address his alcohol abuse.
He said his client now took medication, which stopped his desire to drink alcohol and that Kennedy believed he was now turning a corner.
In sentencing, Magistrate Michael O'Brien said an ICO might be suitable to continue the good work that Kennedy had already started.
He said he hoped what he had been told about Kennedy turning a corner was true, noting that he had lost his freedom due to similar offences in the past.
"One would have thought that would have given him pause to think 'if I drink alcohol I shouldn't operate a vehicle after'," he said.
Mr O'Brien made it a condition of Kennedy's order to complete 54 hours of community service and to provide written evidence of satisfactory completion of the Traffic Offenders Intervention Program to the Registrar of the court by January 31, 2021.
