A Waverley man who was drunk when he lost control of his car and collided with a ticket machine while doing burnouts in the Birchalls' car park was fined a total of $2144 in the Launceston Magistrates Court.
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Leon Michael Allan, 50, changed his pleas from not guilty to guilty on three charges; drive a motor vehicle while exceeding 0.05; reckless driving and a count of being a driver involved in a crash and failing to stop.
The court heard that about 3.40am on February 1, 2020 Allan was doing burnouts in his Mitsubishi Magna while driving in circles and demonstrating a sustained loss of traction.
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He hit a ticket machine, causing a hub cap to dislodge and accelerated away.
Witnesses in the car park called police who arrived at Allan's home shortly after to find him standing at the driver side door with keys in his hand.
The front passenger side of the car was damaged. A breath analysis revealed a reading of 0.142.
In an interview with police Allan said that burnouts were something that he regularly did but said he could not recall anything happening in the car park.
Defence counsel Beri Kurdistan said Allan believed that he had been drugged at a hotel and had sought a pathology test two days after the event.
However, the report showed no residual drugs in his system.
"Mr Allan is remorseful and was extremely disturbed upon finding out his involvement after he read statutory declarations from witnesses for the first time today," she said.
"He has no memory but accepts the charges."
Before the guilty plea the matter had been set for hearing before Chief Magistrate Catherine Geason.
Prosecutor Matt Hills told Ms Geason that two witnesses including a man struck by the vehicle and transported to hospital had been unable to be contacted and would not be able to give evidence at a hearing.
Ms Geason told Allan that he was being sentenced for crashing into the ticket machine.
"You are not being sentenced on the basis that anyone was hurt," she said.
She said that a previous dangerous driving was in 1996 and there had been a substantial gap between a previous drink driving matter in 2005.
"A fine will have impact on you given your circumstances," she said.
For exceeding 0.05 Allan was fined $1344 and disqualified from driving for 15 months.
Ms Geason said that a potential jail sentence of up two years jail was available for reckless driving and failing to stop.
However, she fined Allan $800 and disqualified him from driving for three months concurrent with the 15 month disqualification.