Darren Kelly had a couple of beers at a local footy match then another half-dozen or so, again all full-strength, at the North Albury Sports Club.

It was then he decided to drive home to Lavington.

Kelly, 51, was so drunk behind the wheel of his car when police pulled him over in Ebden Street that when he got out he could barely stand up.

“The accused positioned himself against his vehicle for support before being requested to walk towards the police sedan,” police told magistrate Tony Murray.

“The accused was unsteady on his feet, tripping on the kerb as he was escorted clearly off the roadway.”

His blood alcohol reading was 0.191.

Reflecting in court on his actions of that night back on July 29, Kelly tried to offer an explanation of why he did what he did.

Kelly told Mr Murray that he had no real excuse for drink-driving.

“Just made a dumb decision at the time,” he said.

Kelly outlined how he had recently come out of a long-term relationship and so didn’t know whether his drinking had been an act of “celebration” or “commiseration”.

“This is your first offence,” Mr Murray said in reply, “but clearly there was no way you should have been driving.

“You were almost four times over the legal limit.”

Kelly said now being unemployed meant he was “struggling a bit – no job, no licence, no money.”

The court was told that when Kelly was pulled over by police about 9.30pm for a random breath test he produced a Victorian driver’s licence.

This had Kelly living at an address in Bright. When asked if still lived there he said “I’ve been working here” in Albury for about 18 months.

For that he was issued with a penalty notice for having failed to get a NSW licence despite living in the state for more than three months.

Kelly was convicted and fined $1500 and disqualified from driving for six months after pleading guilty to driving with a high-range prescribed concentration of alcohol.