A MAGISTRATE has told a former Albury policeman, banned from driving for six months for drink-driving, he should have known better.
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Michael Jeffery King pleaded guilty in Albury Local Court yesterday to driving with the middle-range prescribed concentration of alcohol.
“It was a stupid act on my behalf,” King told magistrate Megan Greenwood.
“It is totally out of character.”
After drinking at a house about 400 metres from his house, he had tried to drive home.
King, 49, of East Albury, said he had been medically retired from the force after 22 years of service.
“You should know better than others,” Ms Greenwood said.
“Perhaps I should,” King replied.
Ms Greenwood said King had an earlier mid-range drink-driving offence 27 years ago.
Police patrolling Mungabareena Road at 7.40pm on December 7 saw King driving in the opposite direction and turned and followed him for a random breath test.
They pulled King over in Rivergum Drive and he told them he had just consumed his last drink.
A roadside test had proved positive and King was arrested.
King told them at the police station he had been drinking for most of the afternoon at a private residence.
A breath analysis provided a blood alcohol reading of 0.142 and his licence was suspended.
Ms Greenwood said people in regional areas found it difficult without a licence.
She said King had a good record, although his reading was at the upper end of the middle range.
King was fined $880, plus $83 court costs, and was disqualified for the minimum period of six months, backdated to when the licence was suspended.
