A HOMELESS drunk has been jailed after trying to enter a Bendigo Hotel in the early hours of Monday morning.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Alan Roland Divko, 51, was arrested outside the Shamrock Hotel on Williamson Street after a staff member reported a man banging on the door and asking to be let in shortly before 6am.
Bendigo Magisrates Court heard Divko was an alcoholic who had been living in a tent in Golden Square for the past three weeks.
Police prosecutor Senior Constable Liz Jones said Divko was struggling to walk and understand police instructions when officers approached him at the hotel.
She said he had also been arrested in June this year for drunken and offensive behaviour at Sunbury Railway Station where police observed him swearing loudly and spitting.
Divko pleaded guilty on Monday to two charges of being drunk in a public place, and one count each of behaving in an offence manner and failing to appear on bail.
The court heard the offending breached a suspended one-month sentence imposed at Melbourne Magistrates Court in February this year for similar charges.
Defence lawyer Luke Docherty told the court his client had a significant alcohol addiction and had been homeless for almost 15 years.
"Depending how much money he has in his hand, he can drink up to three bottles of rum a day," Mr Docherty said.
He said Divko had a considerable criminal history but had largely stayed out of trouble since the mid-1990s
Mr Docherty said such offending would usually be dealt with by infringement notices or several hours in a police cell while the offender sobered up.
He said a community corrections order would be within the sentencing range but said his client's lack of stable accommodation would likely make him ineligible.
Magistrate Marc Sargent said he was left with no option other than to reinstate the suspended sentence.
But he said he would make the penalty for the new offences concurrent with the month owed.
Mr Sargent jailed Divko for one month and told him he would have had to serve an extra two months in custody had he not pleaded guilty.