Former Australia batsman David Warner was convicted and fined A$1 500 ($1 065) for drink-driving by a Sydney court on Tuesday after being arrested in April.<\/p>\n
Warner, one of Australia\u2019s most decorated cricketers, pleaded guilty after failing a breath test on the Easter weekend when driving his family home in Sydney\u2019s eastern suburbs after a social function.<\/p>\n
The 39-year-old\u2019s blood-alcohol reading was more than twice the legal limit.<\/p>\n
Waverley Local Court heard Warner stopped his car when he saw the roadside breath-testing site and attempted to swap seats with a female passenger.<\/p>\n
\u201cI accept Mr Warner is unlikely to re-offend,\u201d Judge Clare Farnan told the court in comments published by Australian media. \u201c(But) regrettably, drink-driving is still a significant factor in many crashes in New South Wales.\u201d<\/p>\n
The offence was aggravated because children were in the car at the time, Farnan said.<\/p>\n
Warner, who played 112 tests and over 250 limited-overs internationals for Australia, will need to fit an interlock device in his car which will prevent it from starting if it detects alcohol in his system.<\/p>\n
He left the court without commenting to a large media pack. Warner\u2019s management did not provide immediate comment when contacted by Reuters on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Before Farnan\u2019s decision, Warner\u2019s lawyer told the court his client should be spared conviction because he had suffered extra punishment as a result of media coverage.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommercial opportunities (are) being affected,\u201d Australian media quoted Awais Ahmad as saying.<\/p>\n
Warner works for Fox Sports Australia as a commentator and was part of the local broadcaster\u2019s team covering the recent Australia-Bangladesh test in Darwin.<\/p>\n
He is captain of Big Bash League team Sydney Thunder, which is part of a New South Wales state government campaign to deter drink-driving.<\/p>\n
Cricket New South Wales (NSW) did not comment on Warner\u2019s position as Thunder captain when contacted by Reuters on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur organisation is a strong advocate of safe driving, including avoiding drink driving,\u201d Cricket NSW said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe continue to take this incident seriously, including educating all players on the importance of safe driving.\u201d<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23623,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-42946","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Warner, one of Australia\u2019s most decorated cricketers, pleaded guilty after failing a breath test.","published_date":"","news_description":"Warner, one of Australia\u2019s most decorated cricketers, pleaded guilty after failing a breath test.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/42946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/42946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42948,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/42946\/revisions\/42948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=42946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}