Six Months Prison On Driving Charge

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31764, 22 August 1968, Page 9

Six Months Prison On Driving Charge

Six months Imprisonment was imposed on a 57-year-old man in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday when he appeared for sentence before Mr W. F Brown, S.M., on a charge of driving under the influence of drink or drugs and causing bodily injury to Victor Frank Hartley on July 26. The defendant, Dudley Alfred Bagot, a truck salesman (Mr J. S. Bisphan), was also disqualified from driving for five years. It was clear that on the night of the accident Bagot had consumed far too much liquor, Mr Bisphan said. At the time both Mr and Mrs Bagot had been under great strain concerning Mrs Bagot’s health. It was thought she had cancer, but it was found this was not the case.

Bagot was a truck salesman and drove about 35.000 miles a year, and the mandatory loss of licence was going to be a considerable hardship, Mr Bisphan said. Although he would be “grounded,” his em-

ployer would keep him on. Bagot was a man of very good character, he was a first offender and had a good record, Mr Bisphan said. Thu incident had caused him great concern during the last three weeks. He submitted that imprisonment would not be an appropriate sentence, and suggested a very heavy fine. The case was a very bad one, and it would have been hard to find a more gross case of intoxication, the Magistrate said. A blood test had shown more than 300 milligrams >of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The motor-cyclist. Hartley, had been seriously Injured, .and was likely to be in hospital for three months. Although it was a distressing sentence to impose, he felt the case was one in which the sentence must be imprisonment.

If Bagot’s case was not one for imprisonment, it would be hard to imagine one which was, the Magistrate said.