Second impaired driving offence earns Warwick man 30 day prison sentence

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A Warwick man arrested for drunk driving while already off the road for a similar offence was jailed for 30 days.

Carlos Simas, 30, pleaded guilty in Magistrates’ Court to refusing a breath test and driving while disqualified in an incident last week.

The court heard that at around 2.55am, officers on duty on Front Street noticed Simas drinking from a plastic cup outside The Beach and cautioned him about drinking on the streets.

He threw the drink away and the officers continued on their way.

A short time later, officers saw a car driven by Simas travelling along Crow Lane, repeatedly crossing the middle line and forcing traffic travelling in the opposite direction to take evasive action.

The officers activated their lights and siren, but Simas continued for another 200 metres before stopping.

They noticed that his eyes were glazed and his voice slurred, and they arrested him.

On route to Hamilton Police Station, the officers were informed that Simas had been disqualified from driving on October 21, 2011, for driving while impaired, and was still off the road.

While Simas initially agreed to give officers a breath sample, he refused to do so at the Hamilton Police saying he “didn’t have time”.

After pleading guilty in Magistrates’ Court, Simas apologised for the incident, saying he wasn’t thinking.

“I just went out to have a couple of drinks. I know I shouldn’t have been driving,” he said. “When you have a couple of drinks at home, you aren’t thinking.”

Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner fined Simas $1,500 for refusing to give a breath sample and further sentenced him to 30 days in prison for driving while disqualified, saying: “This is your second conviction for driving while impaired and you have got the gall to not only drive while disqualified, but while impaired.”

Simas has appeared in court for notable traffic matters before.

In 2008, he was fined a record $63,000 after driving his unlicensed and uninsured car through electronic vehicle recognition detectors on 36 occasions.

And on July 29, 2011, he crashed his car into the wall of a private residence while more than three-and-a-half times over the drink-drive limit, the offence which caused his current disqualification.

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