{"id":573084,"date":"2026-08-18T21:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T21:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/573084\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T21:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T21:12:09","slug":"david-warner-fined-for-drink-driving-tried-to-swap-seats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/573084\/","title":{"rendered":"David Warner fined for drink-driving, tried to swap seats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian cricket supremo David Warner has lamented global media attention about his drink-driving offence<\/a>, suggesting it cost him valuable overseas commercial opportunities.<\/p>\n

The 39-year-old was convicted and fined $1500 on Tuesday for mid-range drink-driving after he tried to switch seats with a passenger when approaching a random breath-testing site on Easter Sunday.<\/p>\n

The star batter’s barrister argued he should be spared conviction for the offence – when he blew more than twice the legal limit – because he had suffered extra punishment as a result of media coverage.<\/p>\n

Awais Ahmad told Waverley Local Court his client’s indiscretion had been covered in global outlets including ESPN, Al Jazeera and the Indian Express.<\/p>\n

Countries including India and Bangladesh, where Warner might be seeking to play in T20 franchise leagues, have an acceptance of a “non-drinking culture”, Ahmad said.<\/p>\n

“The consequences of his offending are profound,” Ahmad said.<\/p>\n

“Commercial opportunities (are) being affected.”<\/p>\n

Warner was arrested while he was on an Easter trip home from the subcontinent, where he captained the Karachi Kings in the Pakistan Super League.<\/p>\n

When Warner saw the breath-testing site, he stopped short and attempted to swap seats with a female passenger, the agreed facts read out in court state.<\/p>\n

Once police identified him as the driver, he cooperated with the testing, Judge Farnan noted.<\/p>\n

Ahmad questioned the decision of NSW Police to issue a press release about Warner’s arrest given the unremarkable nature of the offence.<\/p>\n

“The media onslaught thereafter has been quite profound,” the lawyer said.<\/p>\n

Judge Clare Farnan said there was evidence of cruel social media commentary directed at Warner and his wife Candice Warner.<\/p>\n

His position as captain of the Sydney Thunder in the domestic Big Bash League was also under threat, the cricketer’s lawyer said.<\/p>\n

The Thunder, along with rival Sydney Sixers and Sheffield Shield team the NSW Blues, are part of a state government campaign to deter drink-driving.<\/p>\n

Despite the star batter’s pleas, Judge Farnan said the need to deter the public from drink-driving was paramount in her decision to convict him.<\/p>\n

More than 17,300 people had come before the court in the past fivce years for mid-range drink-driving, she said.<\/p>\n

“I accept Mr Warner is unlikely to reoffend,” she said.<\/p>\n

“(But) regrettably, drink-driving is still a significant factor in many crashes in NSW.”<\/p>\n

The offence was aggravated because children were in the car at the time, the judge said.<\/p>\n

Warner will be able to drive after he applies for an interlock licence and has the device fitted to his car.<\/p>\n

The interlock will prevent the car from starting if it detects alcohol in his system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian cricket supremo David Warner has lamented global media attention about his drink-driving offence, suggesting it cost him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,67,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-573084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-australia","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}