Woman escapes conviction for drink driving

Amy De Rooy, 40, of Livingston Road, Marrackville pleaded guilty to the charge and was placed on a conditional release order for two years, without conviction and ordered to complete the Traffic Offenders Program.

De Rooy told the court she wanted to apologise for taking up the court's time and is deeply ashamed of the offence, which she described as a "lapse in judgement".

While De Rooy admitted there was no excuse for drink driving, she told the court she had received bad news about a relative's health the day before the offence and did not handle it well.

De Rooy told the court she had travelled to Cowra from Bathurst to visit another relative and had a few drinks the night before the offence.

The court was told by De Rooy she didn't realise she would be over the limit the next day and would not have driven if she had known it.

In sentencing Magistrate Rana Daher noted De Rooy's reading just crossed into the mid range and there were no aggravating factors to the offence, which was discovered through a random stop by police.

Magistrate Daher told De Rooy she was not to commit any traffic offences in the next two years, not even a parking fine.

According to police documents tendered in court, about 11.25am on Wednesday, August 2, 2023 De Rooy was stopped on the Mid Western Highway, Cowra for random testing.

De Rooy returned a positive result to alcohol above the legal limit and was arrested and taken to Cowra Police Station for secondary testing.

After a 15 minute observation period, De Rooy was subjected to secondary testing which returned a result of 0.081.

In relation to drinking De Rooy told police she had half a bottle of Bacardi and half a bottle of red wine, with her first drink at 3pm the previous day and last drink at 5am on that day.

She told police she was drinking because she found out a close family member had been diagnosed with cancer.