Kate Ritchie was charged with drink driving, loses driver’s license

Katherine Leigh Ritchie is an Australian actress, radio presenter, and children’s author. She remains best known for her long-running role as original character Sally Fletcher on the television soap opera Home and Away for which she won two Gold Logie awards.

She played the character for 20 years appearing from the pilot episodes in 1988 until 2008. She has been charged with drunk driving and slapped with a three-month driving ban.

Ritchie is known for playing Sally Fletcher on Home and Away for 20 years leaving the series behind in 2008. She works in radio and also hosts Nova FM’s morning show Kate, Tim & Joel with Tim Blackwell and Joel Creasey. She missed several episodes of the show after testing positive for COVID-19. 

Ritchie appeared on television though, on a new season of Australia’s Got Talent as a judge with Shane Jacobson, Alesha Dixon, and David Walliams. In April 2021, Ritchie opened up about her struggle to find her own identity after playing Sally Fletcher for 20 years on Home and Away. 

Ritchie being charged

On Monday afternoon, Police allege that Ritchie 44 was driving over the limit in the suburb of Pagewood in Sydney’s east. She was pulled over in her blue Subaru station wagon that was just before 2.45 pm for a random breath test and allegedly blew a positive result. 

She had a positive test result so police took her to a local precinct for a second test. The second test proved that she had a 0.06 blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level. This was over 0.05 legal limits in NSW. The actress was given an infringement notice for driving with a low range prescribed concentration of alcohol. Their driving license of Ritchie was suspended for three months. She was fined $600. Ritchie undertook a random breath test. It was a low level where the test came back positive.

Ammaji