A Gooloogong man will be off the road for eight months after pleading guilty to drink driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.268 when he came before Cowra Local Court to answer the charge.
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Steven Eric Eagles, 44, who also has an address in Eugowra, was further charged with destroy or damage property, which was dealt with via a Section 10A.
Eagles was disqualified from driving for eight months, backdated to July 21, 2022.
He was also placed on an interlock licence for two years and fined $950.
Eagles' solicitor Rachel Power told the court her client has been off the road since the offence, and has no criminal history or any other drink driving offences.
Ms Power said Eagles hadn't been drinking for a while, but at the time of the offence he had relapsed and driven to Forbes to retrieve cattle he had temporarily donated for use by a school's cattle team.
She told the court he had damaged a padlock on one of the school's gates, but was unable to retrieve his cattle due to further internal fencing.
Ms Power said this was when school staff arrived and informed Eagles that the police had been called.
Ms Power told the court Eagles had described the period as the lowest point in his life.
According to police documents tendered in court, in the last week of July Eagles drove from his property in Gooloogong to a school in Forbes to collect several heifers his family had loaned to the school's agricultural team.
Eagles contacted school staff and threatened to drive through the back gate if no one would let him through to take them.
He used his vehicle to push the steel gates open, causing some damage. Police arrived shortly after and spoke with Eagles about what he was doing.
Police also submitted Eagles to a breath test due to the collision with the gate. The initial test returned a positive result to alcohol and Eagles was arrested and taken to Forbes Police Station.
Eagles admitted to consuming six glasses of rum and coke the night before, with the last drink about 12am that morning.