Charlie Bucket's golden ticket got him Willy Wonka's wonderful world of chocolate.
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James Peirce Stewart-Hawkins' golden ticket just got him wonky; so badly from three pints of craft beer with a 13 per cent alcohol punch that he smashed his car into a tree.
He'd swerved to miss a kangaroo and somehow managed to escape the crash - the impact causing his car to burst into flames near his Ettamogah home - with only a split lip.
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The 27-year-old pub worker and would-be research scientist was supposed to be having another night off the booze.
He had been taking part in a cancer fundraiser run by the Dry July Foundation, Albury Local Court heard on Monday.
But one of his friends, after Stewart-Hawkins had gone out for a meal in central Albury on the night of July 14, gifted him one of the foundation's own golden tickets.
The tickets give participants a night off - or rather, a night back on the grog - in exchange for a donation.
Magistrate Richard Funston said he did not want to take anything away from the foundation's good work, but he found the ticket concept "a bit odd".
Earlier, defence lawyer Jason Hanke said the kangaroo had come out of the bush out of nowhere, so whether Stewart-Hawkins was intoxicated or not he would have needed to swerve to avoid a collision.
It was conceded though that being drunk behind the wheel of his 2006-model Audi A7 meant he would not have reacted as quickly as someone sober.
Mr Funston said Stewart-Hawkins "could have killed himself" in the crash on Central Reserve Road
Stewart-Hawkins was placed on a 12-month community corrections order and had his licence disqualified for eight months, having pleaded guilty to driving with a high-range prescribed concentration of alcohol.
A blood sample taken at Albury hospital after the crash, which happened on July 15 about 2am, provided a reading of 0.167.