Join Wiseman Lawyers Traffic Lawyer Andrew Wiseman at Childers Magistrates Court as he represents a client charged with Dangerous Operation of a Motor Vehicle Whilst Adversely Affected. Watch Andrew explain what happened in the courtroom, along with the outcome which he achieved and how he achieved it.
All right, today, I’m at Childers Magistrates Court. It’s about a 50 minute drive inland of Bundaberg, so I drove up yesterday, stayed at Childers last night, met the client this morning. My client was in quite a bit of strife. Two charges. One was of possess drug utensil, which was only ever going to be a fine. But the more serious charge was dangerous operation of a motor vehicle while adversely affected. So what that means is it was dangerous driving, which is a criminal charge. There’s been a collision, and when they took bloods that was found to be methamphetamine in his system. Fortunately there was no injuries, so it stayed in the magistrates court. Basically, if there’s any injuries or death, if there’s grievous bodily harm or death, the matter will go up to the district court. And if you’re going to go to jail, it’s how long for.
So dangerous operation with drug or alcohols involve… Sorry, drugs or alcohol involved, with grievance bodily harm or death is district court and you going to jail, and in which case our job becomes one of getting the period of actual custody down as low as possible, as opposed to avoiding it. I mean, on occasions you will avoid jail, but as a rule it’s how long not if. But fortunately there was no grievous bodily harm, so the matter stayed the magistrates court. And there’s always going to be a risk of imprisonment. So my job was one of ensuring that didn’t happen, and as a way of doing that I draught written submissions of case law. So over the years there’s been multiple cases where people have gone to jail and haven’t, and obviously my job’s one of summarising the cases where people haven’t. I drafted those written submissions well in advance.
But again, I’m a bit worn out. It’s been a big week. But yeah, so avoiding imprisonment. And did those written submissions of case law up to ensure, or at least fortify, the position if the prosecutions were hell bent on actual custody, or the magistrate for that matter. But also, so avoiding jail, getting the disqualification down as low as possible, trying to avoid anything else that the magistrate may deem appropriate. So you’re always going to get disqualified, maximum for dangerous operation of motor vehicle wide adversely affected is a lifetime loss of licence, manage [inaudible] six months, but that’s a starting point. If there’s a serious collision albeit without injury, and drugs involved, pushing for the minimums probably foolish because you could agitate the magistrate and it could blow up in your face and you could end up with actual jail. What’s important getting a six months disqualification if you’re in jail for 12 months?
So anyway, I’m sort of prattling on a bit. Did those written submissions up to try and fortify the position on whether or not there’s going to be jail. Got my client to do the reformatory course we get all of our clients to do, got him to get references based on the template we give to all of their clients to get referees to address the key points that needed to be covered. Drove up yesterday, met the client this morning, ran through my submissions, the procedure. So again, there was a few elements to what I needed to achieve today. A, avoid imprisonment. B, get the disqualification down as low as possible. And C, because this is a criminal matter to be said in the same sentences, literally every other crime out there, dangerous driving, if you end up with a recorded conviction, it’s a recorded criminal conviction. Meaning you’ve now got a criminal history. To be said in the same sentences, every other… Drug trafficking and all the putrid crimes out there.
So as a convicted criminal, you’re put into a class by prospective employers or insurance companies and the likes. So if you’ve got a criminal conviction of any kind, a lot of people see you as a criminal. And a lot of lawyers even don’t understand the difference between dangerous driving being a criminal offence, and high range drink driving being a traffic offence. So if you get a lawyer and it’s not me, make sure if they haven’t already decided to do it, that you tell them to push for no conviction recorded. Anyway, the point I’m getting at is that was the third limb of what I needed to achieve today. Push for no conviction recorded on both charges. So there was the dangerous operation and the pipe charge.
Look, I was on my feet for quite a while, because obviously it was a pretty serious incident. Again, I emphasise the fact that there was no injuries, but it was still a pretty serious collision. Both cars were write offs, and it was a charge of dangerous driving while adversely affected by methylamphetamine. So there was a fair bit of time on my feet trying to guide the magistrate through the appropriate penalties. And my client’s background, obviously I’m not going to publish who my client is or their background, but there was quite a bit of a story to tell. Again, I’m starting to prattle on a bit. But look, the long and short of it is, A, I was able to persuade the magistrate that… I put a window of six to nine months disqualification, which is a bit cheeky, to be honest, given the circumstances and the charge. But I went with that and I didn’t just say it and sit down, I spoke at length about why I thought that was appropriate.
Ultimately I was able to sway the magistrate. As I said, I put six to nine to the magistrate, they settled at eight. So he was given an eight month disqualification. The prosecutor was pushing for probation, which is basically a supervisory order. Meaning he’d got a report and be supervised for a period. I resisted that, and I was ultimately successful to sway to the magistrate to not go with probation and give a fine only. So he’s given eight month disqualification, fines. So a combined fine for the dangerous operation and the pipe. And I was also, probably most importantly, able to persuade the magistrate not to record convictions on either charge.
So no conviction recorded on the dangerous driving whilst adversely affected, no conviction recorded on the possess drug pipe, eight months disqualification, modest combined fine for both. Clients obviously very happy. This could have gone all matter of ways of bad had they have not engaged us at all, led alone early on like they did. As I said, very happy. I’m Andrew Wiseman at Childers Magistrates Court, thanks for watching.