A three-year-old and a nine-year-old were found hiding in a boat being towed along a highway, both under the influence of alcohol, while their father was sat drunk in the front seat.
Craig Lawrence Walton, 35, who drove the family home from a crabbing trip, pleaded guilty in Gympie Magistrates Court to dangerous driving on Thursday, The Gympie Times reported.
Police pulled Walton over in Cooloola Cove, near the south-eastern tip of Yorke Peninsula on December 11 at 9.45pm last year after seeing a child in the boat, which was being slowly towed along the road.
The court heard when the child saw police, they ‘hit the deck to avoid detection’.
Police pulled over a car towing a boat after seeing a nine-year-old sitting on deck unrestrained, and were astounded to find the child and their younger sibling, three, were under the influence of alcohol (stock image)
The children, their father and his friend were returning from a crabbing trip when they were pulled over by police (stock image)
While the father of the two children escaped a drink-driving conviction by getting his friend to drive the group home, he did not escape the wrath of his wife, who was reportedly furious when they arrived at the family home.
The youngest child was asleep on the floor of the boat at the time.
Walton had questioned the placement of the man’s two children, but the father brushed off his concerns, the court heard.
The court heard it would have been easy for the children to climb out of the boat as it was being towed down the highway, which could have killed the pair.
Though he was fined $750 and disqualified from driving for six months for his actions, police made no claim Walton had anything to do with the children being under the influence of alcohol.
Gympie magistrate Ross Woodford said the circumstances of the incident were ‘unusual’, and it was relieving everyone made it home safely.
‘Thank goodness nothing happened to those children,’ he told the court before delivering his sentence.
When the car and boat arrived at the children’s family home, the three-year-old was reportedly asleep on the floor of the boat (stock image)