South Wales Echo

GP was nearly three times over the limit after ‘stressful day’

- NINO WILLIAMS Reporter nino.williams@walesonlin­e.co.uk

A DOCTOR who had “a stressful day at work” drove home from his surgery while almost three times over the drink-drive limit – and then collided with a traffic island.

Neeraj Singh, a partner in a Treorchy GP practice, was travelling from work to his home in Cyncoed Place, Cardiff, when a member of the public concerned about the manner of his driving followed him and called police. The father-of-two was then spotted colliding with the traffic island at Hopkinstow­n in Pontypridd, which caused a tyre to burst.

A roadside breath test revealed he had 96 microgramm­es of alcohol in 100ml of breath – the legal limit is 35.

Mike Powell, prosecutin­g, told Merthyr Magistrate­s’ Court that Singh admitted in police interview he had consumed vodka at the “end of a stressful day at work”. However, he still believed he was fully in control of the vehicle, despite hitting the kerb on two occasions.

Mitigating, Andrew Shanahan urged magistrate­s not impose a community order.

He said: “He has been a doctor for 21 years, a GP for 15 years and a partner in a practice for 11 years.

“What has happened here is a build-up of incredibly stressful working conditions. We are all aware of what doctors and medics have been going through in the past 18 months. They not only have their normal work but also Covid work and have to organise their practice to comply with Covid laws. We have all seen the news about burnout and stress and the impact on working conditions for doctors.

“The ideal situation is for Dr Singh to get back into work and caring for people as soon as possible.”

He added that Singh lived with his wife and two teenage children, but also had to care for his parents who live nearby, one of whom has dementia and the other having suffered a stroke, with no other relatives in the country to help him.

Sentencing the 48-yearold, district judge Neale Thomas: “You had a significan­t amount of alcohol in your system, nearly three times the limited for driving. That must have been a fact known to you when you got behind the wheel. You knew you were a risk to other road users.

“You drove in such a poor state a member of the public informed the police. When the police found you, your tyre was damaged and you accepted the collision with the street furniture.

“It was fundamenta­lly a catastroph­ic error of judgement on your part to think you could drive that distance.”

Singh was fined £2,000 and must pay £85 costs and a £190 surcharge. He was also disqualifi­ed from driving for three years.

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