Donnybrook woman Kahlia Aimee Lloyd jailed after ninth driving offence

A Donnybrook woman wiped away tears after having her suspended prison sentence triggered after being convicted of her ninth driving offence in Manjimup Magistrates Court. Kahlia Aimee Lloyd, 34, was sentenced to seven months in jail after pleading guilty to driving with a suspended licence when she was caught behind the wheel in September last year. The violation was the ninth time Lloyd had been caught driving on a suspended licence with the last offence occurring in June 2021 which resulted in a seven month suspended prison order being issued by Magistrate Benjamin Tyers. On January 6 Lloyd again pleaded guilty to driving in breach of court orders after accepting responsibility for driving her car without legal authority. The court heard on September 24 Lloyd was pulled over by police on the South Western Highway just North of Balingup. When confronted as to why she was driving illegally, Lloyd told the police she had been called into work that morning after spending the night at a friend’s house and she did not have any means to get to her job. Mr Peter Griffin, who represented Lloyd, said it was a “spur of the moment” decision to drive because she was trying to keep the job at the Donnybrook Family Bakery she had just started. Mr Griffin tried to convince Magistrate Belinda Coleman it “would be unjust” to jail the single mother considering none of her previous convictions had involved hurting herself or other road users. “Does it matter,” Magistrate Coleman replied. The magistrate said it was “relevant” to note the driving offence was very soon after her latest appearance in Manjimup Magistrates Court and reprimanded Lloyd on the “many opportunities” she had had to avoid a jail term. “You continue to disregard the law, you place other road users at risk,” she said. “You were not allowed to be behind the wheel at all.” Magistrate Coleman triggered Lloyd’s suspended sentence and sentenced her to a seven-month jail term, which she will be eligible for parole for in three-and-a-half months. Lloyd was also sentenced to a six-month jail term for the latest offence to run concurrently with the first prison order and given a nine-month driving suspension cumulative on her current ban, which runs until January 2023.