A retired Albury vet who repeatedly breached a court order by drinking in front of his wife has had his sentencing delayed after going into rehabilitation.
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Peter William Lee did not appear in Albury Local Court, and had begun treatment for his alcoholism at a private hospital in Melbourne.
Defence lawyer Angus Lingham asked magistrate Sally McLaughlin for an adjournment on sentencing.
He also flagged a possible application to have Lee excused on the next date through being bailed to a rehabilitation facility.
Lee, 68, has pleaded guilty to two separate charges of breaching an apprehended violence order.
The court was told the first incident took place on February 24 when Lee's wife of 44 years returned to their central Albury home.
She walked in and was surprise to see Lee in good spirits and not intoxicated.
But half an hour later, the woman, 67, noticed her husband "to be sounding a bit odd" with a changed tone of voice, a twitching mouth and that he clearly was affected by alcohol.
She asked Lee to blow into a breathalyser, which produced a result of 0.149.
Police said the victim asked him to leave as he was now in breach of his apprehended violence order, which prohibited contact with her within 12 hours of drinking alcohol.
But instead, Lee went into his bedroom. She followed soon afterwards to find him slumped in a chair asleep.
The woman found a half-empty bottle of vodka behind the curtain. The next morning he became embarrassed when she came across him drinking from a wine bottle in the laundry.
The second charge related to an incident on March 11 about 10am when Lee, who by then was staying in an Albury motel, asked her to come around to help find his hearing aids.
She was reluctant to do so because of his drinking, but did so - on arrival she found him still searching for the aids and struggling to use the pin number on his debit card.
Lee's sheets smelt of alcohol so she washed them, then returned home about 2pm.
She returned later but stayed only briefly because once again Lee appeared to be under the influence.
Lee's case was adjourned to April 2.
