Man, 18, Appeals Against Five-year Driving Ban
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday September 9, 1987
An 18-year-old West Pennant Hills man has appealed against the severity of a sentence handed down in Hornsby Court this week disqualifying him from driving for five years for refusing to undergo a breath analysis.
Gregory Bruce Higgins, apprentice electrician, of Pennant Hills Road, West Pennant Hills, pleaded guilty to refusing to undergo a breath analysis at Hornsby on August 22.
The magistrate, Mr Roger Davey, fined Higgins $800 and disqualified him for five years.
Higgins also pleaded guilty to doing a U-turn at an intersection controlled by traffic lights and was fined $100.
A charge of driving under the influence of alcohol was adjourned to December 11 and no plea was entered. Bail was dispensed with.
Facts tendered by the prosecution said police patrolling at 12.10am saw a car travelling east in Railway Street, Pennant Hills.
The headlights of the vehicle were not switched on.
Police said the vehicle stopped at traffic lights at the intersection of Pennant Hills Road and the driver turned on the headlights.
The police followed and saw the car make a U-turn at Boundary Street, an intersection controlled by traffic lights.
They then stopped the vehicle and the defendant underwent a roadside breath test which proved positive.
He was arrested and taken to Hornsby police station where he refused to undergo a breath analysis.
The defence told the court that Higgins had attended Barker College and left after completing Year 11.
He had a conviction in the Children's Court for a low range prescribed concentration of alcohol in the blood and this was probably what led him to refuse the breath analysis because he was under the impression that he could have a lawyer present.
Things were "done differently" in the Children's Court.
© 1987 Sydney Morning Herald