An international student in Sydney has received a 10-month suspended sentence and has been disqualified from driving for ‘high-range’ drink driving and driving while disqualified.
Surya Teja Penugonda from Telangana who lives in Harris Park, Sydney, escaped jail time after Magistrate Brett Shields placed him on a 10-month suspended sentence at Parramatta Local Court on Tuesday.
Surya Teja Penugonda was driving with four other people in his car when he was pulled over by the police in the south of Nowra on July 8th.
According to the court papers, police officers had witnessed the vehicle swerving between lanes and it almost collided with the nearside gutter when it came to a stop.
International students in Australia, who are regarded as temporary residents, are allowed to drive in Australia based on their driving licence from their home country as long as it is current and valid. If the licence is not written in English, one must also carry a certified translation in English or apply for an International Driving Permit from home country.
According to officers, Penugonda smelt strongly of intoxicating liquor but claimed he had nothing to drink.
Police also told the court that Surya was driving while disqualified. He was disqualified for a minimum of 12 months earlier this year after being caught "high-range" drink-driving on January 6th.
The police said his eyes were bloodshot, his pupils dilated, his breathing was slow, the speech was slurred and he was clumsy.
His breath test yielded a positive reading of 0.162.
He later admitted to the police that he had six glasses of wine that day.
Surya Telangana pleaded guilty to both charges in Parramatta Local Court.
He was also fined $750 and ordered to have an interlock device fitted to his vehicle for four years.
The number of Indian students studying in Australia has risen to a seven-year high recently.
Alcohol and drugs tests will be back to the roads of NSW. Source: AAP
There were 509,610 foreign students enrolled in more than 540,000 courses up until February 2018, where Indian students comprised 12 per cent of the total intake.
The value of the international student market has increased 22 per cent since 2016 and is now worth $32.2 billion a year.
