A man's pleas for mercy filled the court room as the magistrate handed down a prison sentence for drink driving in Griffith Local Court on Wednesday.
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Gurpreet Singh, 28, was escorted by police straight to prison from the courthouse after being convicted for his third drink driving offence in three years.
Singh was sentenced to eight months behind bars with a non-parole period of four months, combined with a nine month disqualification with a mandatory interlock use period of 18 months for his drink driving.
A further conviction and 12 month disqualification was added for driving while disqualified.
Singh was charged on September 23, 2018 after crashing a car into a palm tree on Jondaryan Avenue at around 7.30pm.
Singh was found by police sitting on the median strip next to the damaged Toyota Camry near the intersection of Couch Road.
A breath test administered returned a positive high range reading of 0.142. Singh admitted to drinking six 375ml bottles of Carlton Dry full strength beer with his last at 7pm, less than half an hour before the crash.
A check on Singh's record showed his previous Western Australian driver's licence had been disqualified.
Strong arguments from David Davidge, Singh's legal representative, outlined his "quietly intelligent" client's strong work ethic using a letter from his employer as evidence, before detailing his support of relatives in India.
Mr Davidge said Singh had an "entrenched" problem with alcohol and binge drinking, for which he had recently taken steps to address.
However Magistrate Boulos said Singh seeking help appeared to be no more than "eleventh hour" steps taken to avoid prison time.
"Yes he is suitable for community service orders, but I think he needs to go in," she said.
While she accepted Singh's subjective circumstances, she said as this was his third drink driving offence in three years it was clear he "hasn't learned his lesson."
Singh became distressed as the orders were handed down, and could be heard repeatedly begging the magistrate "your honour please" as he was escorted from the room into custody.
He submitted an application for release so he could appeal his conviction in Griffith District Court later in the day, appearing via audio-video link.
Magistrate Boulos refused bail. Singh's District Court appeal will be heard next Wednesday.
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