A bar employee has been convicted and fined for an over-zealous attempt to stop a patron from drink driving.
According to police documents tendered in court, 47-year-old Andrew Winter from Catalina, who works at the Bay View Hotel in Batemans Bay, assaulted a regular patron who was drinking with a friend.
The bartender was familiar with the man, who frequently consumed four or five beers at the pub and then drove home. Winter had previously attempted to stop the man driving, but to no avail.
Over time the pair had reportedly developed a “distaste” for one another.
On 22 June, after finished his shift Winter took a seat near the man. Facts stated in court note it was not long before they “began making rude comments aimed at each other”, ending when the man told his friend he was going home, as he’d “had enough of all the fuckwits today”.
The remark was heard by Winter, who reacted by pushing the man, who fell off his stool. Winter dragged him and held him down before bystanders pulled him off. The man then left the pub.
Five days later he gave a statement at Batemans Bay Police Station. Officers attended the hotel and watched CCTV footage of the incident. They subsequently found Winter and charged him with common assault.
Last week Winter appeared in Batemans Bay Local Court, where he pleaded guilty. His defence expressed that he was remorseful of the event, and defended his actions by offering that his motivation was “to stop him from drink driving, which he sees the man do every week”.
Magistrate Doug Dick noted that Winter clearly had good intentions, but had gone about it the wrong way. He fined the staffer $600 and issued a conviction.
“Sometimes we have to make decisions, and sometimes we don’t have a lot of time to consider whether these decisions will lead to consequences,” said Dick.
