Drink-driver banned after moving his car just 60 metres

Moving his car 60 metres to a safer place to leave it overnight has cost a Roughton Moor driver his licence after he hit a telegraph pole.
The scales of justiceThe scales of justice
The scales of justice

Jack Cristian Hughes, 23, of Horncastle Road, Roughton Moor admitted driving with excess alcohol when he appeared before magistrates in Boston last week.

Prosecuting, Jim Clare said that in the early hours of November 26, police discovered a locked driverless Ford Focus had been crashed into a post in Hemingby Lane, Horncastle.

While they were there, Hughes turned up and admitted he had been the driver and, after a positive breath test, was arrested.

He gave a reading of 76 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

Mitigating, Dean Bower said Hughes had been playing squash in an away game and when he returned to the club, stayed behind to celebrate the team coach’s birthday.

He said Hughes made arrangements to be picked up by his brother so he could drink, but he decided to move his car to a safer location overnight and decided to move it across the road where it would be a little quieter.

Mr Bower said the total journey would have been about 60 metres and in fact he only drove about half that distance before he was distracted and swerved into a telegraph pole.

Hughes, who had no previous convictions, was banned from driving for 17 months but was offered the drink drivers’ rehabilitation course which would reduce the period of the ban by 17 weeks.

He was also fined £360 and ordered to pay costs and charges totalling £121.