!['Stumbling' driver eventually failed preliminary test, refused one after arrest 'Stumbling' driver eventually failed preliminary test, refused one after arrest](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/zTpV5j6X6iLmSh5SbcmSaP/28268bd7-a410-42e3-a130-b6ff735463d6.jpg/r0_751_3456_2745_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Police knew for sure a Thurgoona motorist had been drinking when they told him on his arrest to walk around to the back of the caged police truck.
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He was about to be taken to Albury police station to undergo a breath analysis test, having given a positive preliminary reading after much effort.
But Dale John Suggate instead walked off in the other direction, walking around the back of his ute that police had noticed stunk of beer.
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Suggate was swaying after he got out of his vehicle minutes earlier.
"When he moved he stumbled forward as if he'd tripped, yet there was nothing on the ground," police said.
While he eventually made it back to the Albury police station for the breathalyser test, he refused to take part.
That was even after being told this would result in him being charged with an offence treated as seriously under the law as driving with a high-range prescribed concentration of alcohol.
"No," he told the arresting officer, after he was asked to provide a sample of his breath.
"I'm not supplying one."
Suggate, 39, pleaded guilty in Albury Local Court on Monday, April 3, to a single charge of refusing or failing to submit to a breath analysis.
But the case won't be finalised until April 17 after magistrate Sally McLaughlin adjourned the matter to allow Suggate's defence time to obtain further material relevant to sentencing.
The court was told how police received an an anonymous complaint on March 9 about a suspected drink-driver.
About 1.45pm that day they saw a white Isuzu D-Max, twin-cab utility, towing a tandem trailer, in the car park of the Atura Albury hotel.
As they drove past, Suggate was seen walking across the car park towards his ute.
Police drove out and then saw Suggate do likewise, turning right on to Dean Street.
They watched as he slowly drove along looking for somewhere else to park.
Police activated their warning lights in Townsend Street, but Suggate continued towards Smollett Street.
They turned on their sirens but Suggate didn't stop, turning on to Smollett Street and heading east until he finally pulled over near Kiewa Street.
He told police he had not been drinking, but his speech was "slow and slurred" and he appeared to concentrate hard before making "short, sharp comments".
Police told him to count for the preliminary breath test, though he couldn't make it past "three".
Suggate then moved towards the mouthpiece during a "passive breath test", but clearly wasn't going to place his lips around the device.
Eventually, he provided a sample with a preliminary reading of 0.282.
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