Sutton driver more than THREE times over the limit
A Sutton man was more than three times over the drink drive limit when police stopped him as he drove home from a friend's house, a court heard.
Atis Ansevics attracted the attention of officers who were dealing with a broken-down vehicle on Hamilton Road, on March 24, when he “presented as drunk”.
A test revealed he had 120 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, when the legal limit is 35 microgrammes.
Sarah Neale, mitigating, said he had learned his father had been diagnosed with cancer prior to the incident.
“He socialised with friends and tried to find a taxi, but one wasn’t available,” she said. “He wasn’t thinking straight. He bitterly regrets his actions.”
Ansevics, 32, of Harby Avenue, admitted driving with excess alcohol when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Wednesday.
The court heard that the dad-of-one, who works in Hucknall as a groundworker, had no previous convictions and was not going to lose his job.
District judge Jonathan Taaffe told him: “Just think on this - if when you got home today you were told that someone who was three or four times over the drink drive limit had crashed into your young son causing serious injury or death.
“You put yourself in control of a lethal weapon when you should be nowhere near a vehicle.”
Ansevics was given a 16 week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, with 120 hours of unpaid work.
He was banned for three years, but was offered a drink drive rehab course which will reduce the disqualification by 274 days if completed by May 2020.
He must pay £85 costs and a £115 government surcharge.