![Drink driver given a chance to prove he can stay off the road as sentencing delayed to next year. File picture Drink driver given a chance to prove he can stay off the road as sentencing delayed to next year. File picture](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/afalkenmire/65abd45c-899d-41fb-8237-1f37ff30280c.jpg/r0_0_4000_2667_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A TAMWORTH man has been given a chance to prove he can stay off the road and "go cold turkey" on the booze after he was caught drink driving again.
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Tamworth Local Court heard this week Matty David Green already had two mid-range drink driving offences and a high-range offence to his name when he blew more than three times the legal limit in June.
The 33-year-old was disqualified from driving until 2024 when he got behind the wheel while intoxicated in the early hours of June 17.
Police were doing random breath testing on Cole Road in West Tamworth when they pulled Green over just before 3am.
He was arrested after a positive reading and blew 0.153 back at Tamworth Police Station.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Rebecca Skivington said his earlier charges - including completing 120 hours of community service - had not stopped Green from drink driving again.
"I can't think of a more stupid reason to face jail for," she said.
"This is just a complete disregard of court orders."
She said the community had been put at risk by Green's behaviour. He also had a passenger in the car with him at the time.
Aboriginal Legal Service defence solicitor Alison Lee told the court she agreed the threshold for a prison sentence had been well and truly crossed, but said Green had strong reasons to be out in the community.
"He deeply regrets his actions and doesn't wish to do them again," she said.
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She submitted the tiling labourer would go out with friends and down a few but he said he didn't have a binge drinking problem.
She said if Green was handed a community-based custodial sentence he could offer a condition not to drink any alcohol.
"Go cold turkey?" magistrate Julie Soars questioned.
Ms Soars read a report about Green and said "six cans of bourbon and coke" was "certainly unsafe alcohol consumption".
"This looks like it's a very long term problem," she said.
She said the fact he was unlicenced at the time meant he was also uninsured.
A set of police facts also showed Green needed to have an interlock device fitted, and the car he was driving didn't have one.
Ms Soars ultimately decided to mark herself part-heard and delay Green's sentencing for about five months after hearing submissions.
She convicted him of high-range drink driving and driving while disqualified, so that his six months off the road could start.
She put him on strict bail conditions to see how he went.
He must not drink, must not enter licenced venues, must engage with a rehabilitation program and must not drive until he holds a valid licence.
"The proof will be in the pudding," Ms Soars told Green.
"I'm giving you a chance to show the court you can be safe in the community, stay off the road in particular, get back on track."
The police facts said Green had taken responsibility for the offending.
He will be sentenced in February.
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