Ban for chef who crashed car while twice over the drink-drive limit

Ban for chef who crashed car while twice over the drink-drive limit

Lukasz Gorazd (21), of Rue D’Aval, St Martin, pleaded guilty to drink-driving and careless driving for offences committed just after midnight on 12 November on St Saviour’s Hill.

Outlining the case in the Magistrate’s Court, Centenier Mike Byrne said that on Sunday 11 November at 8 pm Gorazd parked his green Renault Laguna in a car park near Ann Street where he met a friend and they walked to TGI Fridays for a meal. He carried on drinking and between himself and his friends, they consumed a bottle of whisky he had bought earlier.

The Centenier said that it was his intention to stay the night but he did not and instead walked back to his car.

Centenier Byrne said that Gorazd drove up St Saviour’s Hill but failed to negotiate a bend in the road and struck a granite wall. Following the collision the car did a loop and exited the road before stopping near a tree at the entrance to a field.

He failed a roadside breath test and was arrested and cautioned at just after midnight.

When he blew into the intoximeter, the reading was 71 mcg of alcohol in 100 ml of breath. The legal limit is 35 mcg.

Advocate Paul Nicholls, defending, said that his client had drunk two beers at TGI Fridays and had two whisky and cokes while with his friends. ‘He does not recall going to his car, he does not recall driving his car and accepts that he was clearly intoxicated,’ said the lawyer.

He said his client was ‘profoundly apologetic’, the offending was ‘entirely out of character’ and Gorazd had no previous convictions in Jersey or his native Poland.

In sentencing, the Magistrate, Bridget Shaw, said: ‘You were clearly very intoxicated. Although I accept that you shared the whisky, you had an accident that resulted in substantial damage to the vehicle.

‘Fortunately neither you nor anyone else was injured.’

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