Woman admits parole breaches after recording 0.427 blood alcohol reading

Elise Nicholas, 37, appeared in the Bendigo Magistrates' Court on Tuesday where she pleaded guilty to the breaches.

The court heard on July 7 last year, Nicholas was released on parole after serving 14 months in prison.

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Her parole conditions included not consuming alcohol and wearing an electronic monitoring device.

The court heard between August 13 and August 14, the device detected Nicholas had consumed alcohol. A blood alcohol reading of 0.071 was confirmed.

Between August 16 and August 17, another breach was confirmed with Nicholas' recording a blood alcohol reading of 0.036.

Sometime between August 26 and August 27, and October 25 and October 26, the device also noted alcohol consumption but could not provide a reading because it had been tampered with.

The court heard another breach was noted on October 28, with Nicholas recording a blood alcohol reading of 0.427. The reading was more than eight times over the legal limit.

Nicholas' parole was cancelled and she was arrested on October 30.

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The court heard she told police she had been drinking beers at home during the first two breaches.

Nicholas also admitted to consuming several cans of Jim Bean bourbon during the breaches on August 26 and October 25.

Nicholas denied the October 28 offending during her police interview.

Defence lawyer Nicholas Rolfe told the court Nicholas would have been released from custody in June if she had not been granted parole last year.

Mr Rolfe said she would now be in custody until September. He asked the magistrate to not impact that release date.

Magistrate Megan Aumair agreed that was appropriate.

She instead convicted and sentenced Nicholas to one month in jail, which was concurrent with her original sentence.

If Nicholas did not plead guilty, she would have been jailed for four months.

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