‘The Mentalist’ Star Simon Baker Admits to Drunk Driving in Court

The Mentalist star Simon Baker has pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol following his July DUI arrest. Appearing in the Mullumbimby Local Court in the state of New South Wales, Australia on Wednesday, according to NBC News, the actor avoided a conviction and jail time.

The Wednesday sentencing hearing came after Baker was pulled over by New South Wales Police early in the morning on July 20. In a statement to PEOPLE, the police department confirmed that a man driving a gray Tesla “in an alleged erratic manner” was stopped on Booyung Road at Nashua at around 2:10 a.m. local time. Officers said the 55-year-old driver, who reportedly told police he consumed four glasses of wine approximately eight hours earlier, was the only person in the vehicle, which was seen crossing over the road’s center line.

“Officers spoke to the driver and sole occupant, a 55-year-old man, before subjecting him to a roadside breath test, which returned a positive result,” the police stated. “Due to an extensive system outage across the country, the man was subjected to a sobriety test that was conducted at the scene.”

Baker reportedly pleaded guilty to a single charge of driving with a blood-alcohol concentration exceeding the legal limit of 0.05% during an earlier court appearance. A lesser count of attempting to drive under the influence of alcohol, meanwhile, was withdrawn by prosecutors that same day.

Although Baker was facing a maximum penalty of 30 penalty units or 18 months in jail, or both, and despite his guilty plea, no conviction was recorded and he walked out of the court room Wednesday with only a nine-month good behavior bond. According to NBC News, Australian judges have the authority to avoid recording a conviction against first-time offenders under exceptional circumstances.

Magistrate Kathy Crittenden described the actor as “very polite and co-operative … extremely remorseful for his actions,” 9News report. Crittenden stated that four character references regarding Baker’s community contributions and significant remorse that also attested to his conduct being out of character were tendered to the court. She said in announcing her decision, “court has little difficulty in finding that Mr. Baker is remorseful for his offending and it is unlikely he will offend again.”

Baker played psychic Patrick Jane on the CBS drama The Mentalist from 2008 to 2015. The role earned the actor a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series nomination and star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013. He later starred in Breath, Here and Now, High Ground, Roar, Blaze, and Limbo. He most recently appeared in Netflix’s Boy Swallows Universe, based on Trent Dalton’s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name.