Ben Gillies' wife's absence from home while appearing on the latest season of I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! contributed to a two-week alcohol relapse and subsequent drink driving charges after the musician crashed into a power pole this past January, a court heard this week.
As Fairfax reports, the Silverchair drummer fronted Newcastle Local Court on Thursday, where he was handed an 18-month good behaviour bond, a $2,200 fine and a 12-month driving disqualification after pleading guilty to mid-range drink driving and negligent driving for crashing into a power pole in Islington at 12.45am on 21 January.
Gillies reportedly returned a breath test reading of 0.144, nearly three times the legal limit.
The 38-year-old's legal representative, Craig Robinson, said Gillies had been sober for four years prior to the car crash.
"His wife went to South Africa to film a TV program," Robinson said.
"A condition of the program is that they don’t have any phones so he had no contact with her."
He added that Gillies "wasn’t coping with that separation and that’s when he lapsed and consumed alcohol for a period of about two weeks, before and after the crash".
Robinson told the court that Gillies has since got his drinking "under control" and is remorseful for his actions.
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