Van driver given ban after being over limit again
MAN WAS ATTEMPTING TO MOVE VEHICLE WITH A FLAT TYRE
A VAN driver has been given a lengthy ban after he was caught over the limit for the second time in three years.
David Storey clearly hadn’t learned from his past mistakes when he got behind the wheel of his work’s Ford Transit while intoxicated in order to park it somewhere different. A court heard the vehicle had a deflated tyre and came to the attention of police as it was travelling slowly.
Storey, of Russell Close, in Battle Hill, was pulled over and failed a roadside breath test, giving a reading of 100mcg of alcohol in 100ml of breath when the legal limit is just 35.
He appeared at North Tyneside Magistrates’ Court last Tuesday to plead guilty to driving with excess alcohol.
Giving him a 18-month community order, with 200 hours of unpaid work and a three-year disqualification, District Judge Kate Meek said: “You have already been on a driving course that is designed to ensure that, when you got your licence back, you would be equipped with the knowledge and information that should make you a safer driver and that you shouldn’t drive if you’ve drunk alcohol.
“It’s difficult to see how someone that went on that course made the decision to drive while under the influence again – it’s certainly confusing at best for me to understand. Offences of drink driving are always treated seriously and you’re walking towards a prison sentence if you carry on committing offences such as these.”
The court heard that police spotted Storey in his Ford Transit on Cleverley Drive, in Backworth, in the early hours of April 9 this year.
Self-employed joiner Storey, whose past conviction for drink driving was in 2019, was arrested after failing a roadside breath test.
The court was told Storey had a deflated tyre at the time, having hit a kerb earlier in the day, before he started drinking, whilst trying to avoid hitting a dog.
Michael Robinson, defending, said Storey had parked his van at a friend’s house before having some drinks.
Mr Robinson continued: “The van was in an allocated parking space, which didn’t belong to his friend, so it had to be moved.
“He and a friend got in the van to move it a relatively short distance, which was less than a mile. The police followed then pulled him over.”