Drink-driver caught after nationwide search
MAN WHO CRASHED VAN AFTER SMASHING INTO A PETROL STATION KIOSK – WHILE BANNED FROM ROADS – IS JAILED:
A DRINK-DRIVER who crashed a van on its roof while banned from the roads was caught flouting the law again 12 days later after a nationwide police search.
William Limb took a van without the owner’s consent before ploughing it into a grass verge after he had already smashed it into a petrol station kiosk. He has now been jailed.
The 26-year-old, of Duck Street, Egginton, was jailed for 12 weeks and banned from the roads for two years after he appeared at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court, where he admitted a series of driving offences.
He pleaded guilty to two charges of taking a vehicle without the owners’ consent, driving while banned, without insurance, drink-driving and failing to stop after an accident.
Derbyshire Roads Policing Unit posted the outcome of the case on its Twitter page with images of both crashes, with a warning to motorists not to drink and drive.
The court heard that on October 6 Limb took a Nissan Interstar van without the owner’s consent at around 3pm. He then drove the vehicle along the A38 northbound before pulling into Egginton filling station.
A Derbyshire police spokesman said after the case that Limb had parked in the car park and used the cash machine before pulling off. However, he crashed the van into a newspaper stand, which fell into the glass window of the petrol station’s kiosk, cracking it.
Limb simply drove off without leav- ing his details, said police. A short time later he was driving the van in Hartshorne Road, Repton, when it hit a high grass verge and flipped on to its roof, said police.
Limb managed to clamber out of the van, and when police officers arrived he was breathalysed, blowing 87 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes. At the police station later on he blew 54 microgrammes. It also transpired he had been banned from driving and did not have insurance.
Just 12 days later on October 18, Limb took a Ford Fiesta without the owner’s consent from Brook Street, Derby. Police were called and the vehicle’s number plate was put into the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) database. It resulted in the plate being recognised 155 miles away in Surrey, where Limb was found parked at Cobham services on the M25. He tried to drive off but was detained in the car park.
Magistrates decided to jail Limb because they said he had repeatedly offended in a short period of time. He must also pay a £115 victim surcharge.
Speaking after the sentencing, a spokesman for Derbyshire police told the Burton Mail: “It shows that when someone takes a vehicle that isn’t theirs we will use powers such as ANPR to find them and deal with them for any offences they may have undertaken.
“For the drink driving, it is selfish and reckless and on this occasion thankfully didn’t lead to anything more than a damaged kiosk and a ruined van but it could have been much much worse.”