Magistrate slams Port Macquarie man caught drink driving for the fifth time

"The only reason that you're walking out that back door is because of the submissions that I've heard," Magistrate Peter Bugden told Nathan Robert Stanley on Wednesday, May 31.

Stanley, 54, appeared in Port Macquarie Local Court for sentencing after pleading guilty to driving with high-range PCA.

Court documents show that on March 19, about 4.40pm, Stanley was driving in a northerly direction on Park Street, Port Macquarie.

Police stopped the vehicle after they received a complaint from a member of the public who observed him "getting into his vehicle after consuming a large amount of alcohol at Panthers", court documents show.

Officers subjected Stanley to a roadside breath test which returned a positive result. He was placed under arrest for further breath analysis and taken to Port Macquarie Police Station.

Stanley told police he had consumed four to five schooners of full strength beer at Panthers, with the first being about 11am and the last at 4pm.

He also told police he did not consume any food while drinking and had not eaten since the night before, court documents show.

At the station, police formed the view that the 54-year-old was "seriously affected by alcohol".

The second breath analysis at the station returned a reading of 0.161.

Stanley's licence was suspended and an oral fluid swab returned a positive result to cannabis.

Court documents show Stanley told police he had "smoked a couple of cones" the night before.

Stanley's lawyer Douglas Hannaway asked Magistrate Bugden to consider a community corrections order and argued his client hadn't crossed the section five threshold that leads to a full-time custodial sentence.

Magistrate Bugden disagreed and said this was the fifth time Stanley had been caught drink driving.

"He went to a club at 11am and drank until 4pm. It's about one or two kilometres from the club (where he was pulled over) he put people in danger during that trip home," he said.

"It's his fifth time before the court."

Magistrate Bugden said he would have had "no hesitation" of putting Stanley in jail if it were not for his lawyer's submissions.

"You've heard me say that a fifth time before the court for drink driving needs a jail sentence," Magistrate Bugden said when addressing the 54-year-old.

"Everything tells me you're an intelligent human being. You know that people get killed on the roads."

Magistrate Bugden said drink driving is a "significant problem" and that he had no choice but to impose a jail sentence.

Stanley has been sentenced to jail for a period of 18 months to be served by way of an Intensive Corrections Order in the community.

Magistrate Bugden also imposed a mandatory interlock system for 24 months.

Stanley has also been fined $2000 and disqualified from driving for nine months.

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