HOUSE CRASH DRIVER BANNED
A drink-driver has been banned from the roads for four years after his BMW demolished the front of a Sunderland home in a crash.
Reginald Conlin was almost three times the legal limit when his car ploughed into the cottage in Forster Street, Roker, early on August 27.
Police, fire crews and ambulances were called to the scene just after 6am, after 31-year-old Conlin’s 63-reg BMW crashed through the brick wall and into the living room.
Miraculously, no one was injured in the smash.
Householder Edmond Hammond had been brushing his teeth when the car struck his home.
Mr Hammond, 75, said: “I heard some noise and came through and two blokes were walking through my passage saying ‘are you all right?’.
“I came to the front door and saw a car halfway inside in my window.”
A woman neighbour, whose car was struck before the BMW crashed into Mr Hammond’s home, said: “He was lucky he hasn’t killed anyone.”
Police removed the driver from the BMW. He was led away in handcuffs, and was said to be wearing nothing but a pair of women’s pyjama bottoms at the time.
Conlin, of East Vines, in the East End of the city, admitted driving with excess alcohol and without thirdparty insurance when he appeared at Sunderland Magistrates’ Court.
He was found to have 99 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath – the legal limit being 35.
District Judge Roger Elsey sentenced him to an 18-month community order, with 200 hours’ unpaid work, and told him to take part in the drink-impaired drivers’ programme and complete up to 10 days of a rehabilitation activity requirement.
Judge Elsey disqualified Conlin from holding or obtaining a driving licence for four years and told him to pay £85 costs and a £85 surcharge.
“I came to the front and saw a car halfway inside my window” EDMOND HAMMOND