Former Albury man loses licence, put on order over drink-driving crash into fence

Minutes later he crashed his car into a fence bordering Thurgoona Public School.

Mainsbridge knew he should not have been driving, Albury Local Court has heard, because he too had been drinking.

The 20-year-old was charged after a breath analysis test carried out at Albury police station revealed he had a reading of 0.094.

He previously provided written pleas of guilty to charges of driving with a mid-range prescribed concentration of alcohol, unlicensed driving and negligent driving.

Defence lawyer Hannah Straughan said her Sydney client took the charges seriously.

"He has travelled a significant distance to appear in court today," Ms Straughan submitted to magistrate Melissa Humphreys on Monday, September 18.

Ms Straughan said Mainsbridge was drinking with friends from the Albury-Thurgoona area when he committed his offending on July 15.

She said Mainsbridge was repeatedly pressured to drive because his friends wanted some food.

Eventually, Ms Straughan said, he relented and got behind the wheel of his green Toyota Camry, with one of his mates coming along for the ride.

While he was living in Albury at the time, Mainsbridge had moved back to Sydney to get away from what was a negative peer group.

Ms Straughan said Mainsbridge had since moved in with his father and was now - in the wake of his dad needing emergency surgery where his leg was amputated - his main carer.

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The court heard previously that Mainsbridge was driving his car along Bottlebrush Street about 9.10pm when he lost control as he drove past the school.

His car mounted the kerb and crashed into the fence.

"The accused has then left the location and drove to the nearest intersection on Tallowwood Street and came to a stop to assess the damage to his vehicle," police said.

Several witnesses approached his car, watching as the passenger fled the scene. One of them called triple zero.

Police arrived soon after to the sight of Mainsbridge trying to remove a spare tyre from the car to swap over for one damaged in the crash.

Mainsbridge smelt of alcohol and he was "highly stressed and erratic".

He claimed he had been travelling at 40kmh and "had issues" as he had not been able to use the handbrake.

But police said Mainsbridge would not have needed to use his handbrake, as it was a straight stretch of road without traffic islands that "might have caused the accused to veer onto the kerb".

Ms Humphreys convicted Mainsbridge, placed him on a six-month community corrections order to be supervised by NSW Community Corrections in Campbelltown and disqualified him from driving for three months, as well as fining him $500.

Mainsbridge must also complete the traffic offenders' program within three months.

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