Most people charged with drink driving in the Territory are worried about the fine. The fine is rarely the problem. Losing your licence is the problem, and for a lot of Territorians losing a licence means losing work.
Drink driving in the NT is governed by the Traffic Act 1987. What happens to you depends on two things: your reading, and whether you have been here before.
The three ranges
- Low range: 0.05 to under 0.08
- Medium range: 0.08 to under 0.15
- High range: 0.15 and over
Refusing or failing to provide a sample for a breath analysis, or refusing a blood test, is treated at the high range end. Refusing is not a way out.
What the court can do
Fines in NT legislation are set in penalty units. A penalty unit is $194 from 1 July 2026, and the value rises each July.
| Range | First offence | Second or subsequent |
|---|---|---|
| Low (0.05–0.079) | Up to 5 penalty units (about $970) or 3 months prison. Disqualification not compulsory. | Up to 7.5 units (about $1,455) or 6 months. Minimum 3 months disqualification; 6 months for a third or later offence. |
| Medium (0.08–0.149) | Up to 7.5 units (about $1,455) or 6 months. Minimum 6 months disqualification. Driver education course required before you get your licence back. | Up to 20 units (about $3,880) or 12 months. Minimum 12 months disqualification, plus an alcohol ignition lock period. |
| High (0.15+) | Up to 10 units (about $1,940) or 12 months. Minimum 12 months disqualification. | Up to 20 units (about $3,880) or 12 months. Minimum 18 months disqualification, plus an alcohol ignition lock period. |
Driving under the influence of alcohol or a drug, where you were incapable of proper control, sits alongside these with its own mandatory disqualification periods.
These are maximums and minimums, not the going rate. What a court imposes turns on the reading, the driving, your record, your reasons for driving and how the plea is presented.
The disqualification is the sentence
The minimum periods above are the floor. The court cannot go under them, and it does not matter how much you need to drive.
That is worth sitting with. A medium range reading on a first offence means six months off the road at minimum, whether you are a FIFO worker, a sole trader with a ute, or a parent doing school runs from the rural area. There is no work licence scheme in the Territory that fixes this.
Which is why the work happens before sentencing, not after.
Alcohol ignition locks
For repeat drink driving, the court adds an alcohol ignition lock period after the disqualification ends. During that period you may drive a vehicle fitted with a lock, a device that requires a breath sample before the engine will start. The period runs from 12 months to 3 years.
If the disqualification is 5 years or more, no lock period applies and you cannot get a lock licence at all. You simply do not drive.
The lock is fitted and maintained at your cost. Budget for it as a real expense, not a formality.
Zero limit drivers
Some drivers must have no alcohol at all: learner and provisional licence holders, drivers under 18, and certain commercial and public vehicle drivers. For those drivers a reading that would be lawful for anyone else is an offence, with its own penalties and compulsory disqualification.
Can you avoid a conviction?
Sometimes. A court can find an offence proved without recording a conviction, taking into account your character, age, background and the circumstances. It is not common in drink driving matters and it is not something to assume.
Be clear about what it does and does not do: the mandatory disqualification still applies. Avoiding a recorded conviction protects your criminal history, not your licence.
What we look at
Not every drink driving charge is as straightforward as the certificate makes it look. We look at the reading and how it was obtained, the operation of the instrument, whether the correct procedures were followed, the time between driving and testing, and whether you were driving at all within the meaning of the Act.
Where the charge is sound, the work is in the plea: what the court hears about why you were driving, what has happened since, and where the minimum should sit rather than the maximum.
Before you plead
Most people plead guilty at the first opportunity, believing it will be quicker. Sometimes that is right. Do it after advice, not instead of it. The discount for an early plea survives a two-week adjournment.