A girl of 15 has been warned she put herself “at great risk” in driving around North Albury with a bellyful of booze.
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To further aggravate her offending, the teenager had four of her mates in the car.
“Bearing in mind she’s so young, is there any reason why she was consuming such a large amount of alcohol?” magistrate Tony Murray asked in Albury Children’s Court this week.
The girl’s solicitor said his client had stated she did not have a problem with alcohol and that her offending “was just a one-off thing”.
Mr Murray was concerned also about how the girl got hold of the alcohol that made her so badly affected behind the wheel.
Her defence replied that “someone bought it for her, your honour”.
Mr Murray pointed out that a young person such as his client would be even more affected by her alcohol consumption compared with an adult.
The girl pleaded guilty to high-range prescribed concentration of alcohol and to never licensed driving on a road.
Mr Murray said he was also concerned by why she put herself and her four friends in such danger.
Her lawyer said the girl conceded it was “a stupid mistake” and that she felt considerable remorse for her actions.
The court was told how police stopped the girl’s car in Logan Road, North Albury, on January 18 at 2.20am.
A check revealed the driver was not licensed so she was asked to get out of the car, with her passengers.
The girl complied with the police request to lock the car and then walk home, after being given a court attendance notice for driving when she had never held a licence.
The last police saw of the group was as they walked off along Logan Road.
But just 20 minutes later another police patrol saw the girl’s car back on the road.
The vehicle was stopped at the corner of Waugh Road and Tarakan Avenue, the girl driving around the same group of friends.
Unlike the previous encounter with police, she was given a random breath test.
When this proved positive, the girl was taken to Albury police station, where she gave a reading of 0.15 – or three times the legal limit for a fully licensed driver.
She estimated she had had about four or five bourbon and colas and two large glasses of wine.
The girl was placed on a control order for 12 months, fined $250 without conviction and disqualified from holding a licence for 30 months.