Brayden Poulter, 23, was in court applying for a limited licence after being stopped for drink driving over the legal limit.

Poulter had recently started working for an agricultural goods trucking company, who will head into a busy season in the next few weeks.

They needed Poulter to have a regular licence, to allow him to drive trucks, and wanted him to be available for daytime driving from Monday to Friday.

To grant someone a limited licence, the court must be satisfied that it’s a necessity for that person to have one - not having a licence would have to cause significant hardship for the licensee, or someone connected to them, like a child or elderly parent.

Police were opposed to granting the amount of driving time Poulter had requested, which included time to drive to and from work - a 30 minute trip one way for him.

Poulter’s employer took to the witness stand and said he was vital to the company.

“Working in the transport industry, it's a very complicated beast.

“We operate under a national scale”.

He said there were seven drivers at the company, who would share between them the day and night shifts.

Shifts are not constant and vary week to week, he told the court.

“This isn’t a 9 to 5 job, I wish it was.

“Because we work in the agricultural sector, it's a lot different from your set run, where we’re confined by the weather and farm requirements.”

Poulter had been off the road for a month, and the boss had picked up the slack.

If Poulter returned to the job, he’d be on day shifts only, so other staff would have to split the night work.

If the court declined his licence, Poulter would lose his job with the company.

“If we lost Brayden, it’d be detrimental. I’d have to jump back into the truck.

“I honestly cannot reduce the hours further.”

Police prosecutor Trevor Holman said limited licence applications were meant to “remove excessive hardship, not to remove inconvenience.”

He said it wasn’t the police’s job to figure out how Poulter got from home to work each day, and having Poulter do a small share of work was better than not having him at all.

“Assuming you’ve got the work, it’d be six hours of work [a day].”

“Would that not be of benefit?”

Holman said the boss had not included the extra work and certain details in his affidavit to the court, only bringing them up on the stand.

“Wait, but you’ve taken a snippet of my affidavit, and you’re running with that,” the boss said at one point in Holman’s cross examination.

Holman continued to argue the affidavit’s contents before judge Savage interjected.

“Can you not read the room, sergeant?

“Is this the police position, or your position… or are the two inseparable?”

He said Poulter would only drive for work reasons, whether that was travelling to it or transporting goods, and would likely welcome a two-day weekend.

“You’re doing the police an incredible disservice, with a case like this that sits on the line.

“If he can’t get to work, that’ll cause him hardship.

“I've seen three limited license applications [today], and this seems like a slam dunk.”

Savage said this time of year was an important one for the trucking company.

“I acknowledge a lot of what happens in the rural sector is weather dependent.”

After considering the impacts of a declined licence on Poulter, his family and staff at his workplace, Savage granted the licence.