Serial drink-driver Wayde Alan Hambley gets prison term

A serial drink-driver has been jailed after receiving his fourth drink-driving conviction since he was banned from driving for life in 2003.

Plantagenet man Wayde Alan Hambley, 49, pleaded guilty to driving without authority and driving with a blood alcohol content in excess of 0.08 in the Albany Magistrate’s Court last Thursday, leading to him being jailed for seven months.

Hambley was working as a shearer in Cranbrook when he got behind the wheel of his Ford Territory in September after drinking that night at the Cranbrook Hotel.

Police prosecutors told the court Hambley recorded a 0.120 blood-alcohol reading after he was stopped by officers in Cranbrook just after 9pm on September 6.

Prosecutors said Hambley had already narrowly escaped time behind bars for unauthorised driving, having being handed a suspended term of imprisonment for driving offences in 2011.

Hambley had also received an intensive supervision order in 2016 as well as two other licence “disqualifications” for other driving offences, including three excess 0.08 charges, since his lifetime cancellation in 2003.

The 49-year-old’s defence counsel told the court Hambley had got behind the wheel because the Ford Territory’s passengers — his partner and step-son — had also been drinking at the Cranbrook Hotel and he did not want them to get in trouble for driving under the influence.

He also told the court the Territory’s locking system did not work and he did not want to leave the vehicle at the hotel because the trio had tools in the car.

Magistrate Raelene Johnston told Hambley his offending was “greatly concerning” and the community did not appreciate driving without authority was a jailable offence.

“You thought the safety of the tools was more important than the safety of other road users,” Ms Johnston said.

“You made a deliberate decision to drive.”