Man close to serving jail time after sixth drink-driving offence recorded

John Robert Guy was detected driving a silver Nissan utility on Melrose Drive in Wodonga on December 2, 2023.

Officers asked him to undergo a breath test, which returned a reading at the Wodonga station of 0.128.

Guy, who said he'd had six beers before getting by the wheel, had already blown over the limit on five prior occasions.

The court heard he'd been battling alcohol issues for years and had particularly struggled with the loss of his father eight years ago.

Magistrate Ian Watkins spoke of Guy's drinking and relayed a case from the now closed Beechworth court, from when he was a young solicitor in the early 1980s.

It was at a time when people could keep their licence for alcohol related driving offences, and Mr Watkins had been asked by his client to push to remain licensed.

"So I did that," he said.

"It took me a lot of work, but I persuaded a magistrate not to take his licence.

"Six weeks later he was driving from Wangaratta over to Beechworth.

"He ran off the road and hit a gum tree.

"He killed himself.

"He had a blood alcohol reading.

"He was still drinking."

Guy said he had been working 11 hours days at Mudgee and said he didn't have time to drink.

Mr Watkins said December's offence was now his sixth drink driving offence on his record.

"Seven is perilously close to a prison term," he said.

Guy was fined $1500 and banned from driving for two years.