A man has been ordered to serve 200 hours of community service and banned from driving for 18 months over a drunken pursuit in Maitland last year.
The solicitor for James Dunstan, a 24-year-old Papua New Guinea national, told Maitland Local Court on Thursday that her client attempted to flee police because of "fear of physical punishment" - his experience of law enforcement officers in his home country was that they used violence.
According to a statement of facts tendered to the court, police spotted Dunstan driving an Isuzu ute along Lindsay Street at East Maitland, without headlights on, just after 3am on November 25, 2023.
Police activated their warning lights and Dunstan stopped the vehicle briefly, before he sped off, accelerating "harshly".
A short pursuit ended at a driveway in Dinter Close, East Maitland, where Dunstan handed himself over to police.
According to the statement of facts, when police asked Dunstan why he tried to flee, he responded that he was scared. When asked why he was scared, he said: "because I am drunk".
He returned a blood-alcohol reading of 0.174 at the scene.
The court heard on Thursday that Dunstan had recently moved to Australia for work, and sent money he earned as an engineer home to his family.
But he had been unemployed since the pursuit and faced the prospect of having to return to Papua New Guinea.
Magistrate Ron Maiden sentenced Dunstan to 200 hours of community service and suspended him from driving for 18 months.
