A Brampton man with five drunk driving convictions and a 10-year driving ban has been sentenced to six months in jail after being caught behind the wheel.

Wayne Gummerson, 59, will also be on two years probation when he is released from jail, and has again been banned from driving for the next 10 years, Mr. Justice Elliott Allen ruled recently. He was also ordered to undergo alcohol counseling.

Gummerson had not been drinking when he was stopped by Peel police in Brampton last Easter weekend, but he was not supposed to be driving, court heard. In 2004 his licence was taken away from him for 10 years after his fifth conviction for drinking and driving related offences since 1986.

Assistant Crown Attorney Sean Doyle had asked for the six month sentence, telling the judge that losing the liberty to drive is one of the punishments that goes along with drunk driving convictions.

"Drinking and driving is a very serious offence. It kills people on Ontario roads every year. It kills them and it maims them," Doyle told the court at Gummerson's sentencing hearing Friday.

"What the Crown has said cannot be over-expressed," Allen agreed. "Hundreds of people are killed in Canada every year by people like this man- repeat drunk drivers."

He said Gummerson, who is retired for health reasons, has shown an "unrelenting pattern of drinking and driving up to 2004."

"This man will not obey the law," Allen said before sentencing Gummerson. "He is approaching incorrigible with respect to drinking and driving and driving while disqualified."

"The main thing the public wants to know about drunk drivers is that they're off the road," the judge noted.
Gummerson's defence attorney, Allan Buchanan, told the court his client came to Brampton from Niagara with a friend to visit the friend's two daughters. His friend was driving, but felt ill, so Gummerson decided to drive from one daughter's house to the other daughter's house, and that is when police stopped him and found out he was banned from driving.

Buchanan told the court Gummerson realizes it was a "ridiculously foolish decision" to drive that night, but he only did it to help his friend and he was not "thumbing his nose at the court order in terms of ignoring it totally." Buchanan recommended a 30-day sentence.

The judge expressed skepticism that the only time Gummerson decided to drive a vehicle in the four years since losing his licence he was pulled over by police.

"It's an amazing coincidence, but that's neither here nor there...we're dealing just with this one day," Allen said.

He also said it is likely Gummerson has had more drunk driving convictions than his record reflects because police only started fingerprinting drunk drivers in the mid-80s.

Gummerson was convicted of having more than the legal limit of alcohol in his blood while driving in 1986 and was jailed for 20 days, court heard.

In 1991 he was jailed 21 days for an impaired driving conviction, and sentenced to three months in jail in 1994 for another impaired driving conviction, court heard. In 1996 he was convicted twice for driving while disqualified and once for impaired driving, sentenced to a total of 22 months and 45 days in jail that year.

In 2004 he was convicted of impaired driving, sentenced to four months in jail and was banned from driving for 10 years.