A 37-YEAR-OLD man who was caught drink-driving three weeks after refusing to provide a blood sample when stopped by the police on suspicion of a similar offence has been jailed for 15 weeks.
The Magistrate’s Court also heard how Zaher Miah, in a separate offence, threatened to kill a colleague, a crime for which he was bound over for six months.
The court heard that Miah made menacing phone calls to his colleague on 14 May this year, threatening to kill him, with the offence only coming to light after he was charged with the two motoring offences.
Describing Miah’s offending, St Helier Centenier Paul Davies, prosecuting, said the Islander had been stopped by the States police on suspicion of drink-driving on Victoria Avenue on the evening of 15 May.
He said: ‘His eyes were glazed and his speech was slurred and slow.’
Miah failed a roadside breath test and was taken to police headquarters for a confirmatory blood test – but refused to provide a sample.
‘He was shouting and refusing to listen, and repeating, “I don’t trust the police”,’ the Centenier told the court.
On 6 June, Miah filled his black Mini at a petrol station but said he had forgotten his wallet and went home to retrieve it. When he returned he was arrested for drink-driving.
Advocate Chris Baglin, defending, pointed out that Miah pleaded guilty to the charges at the earliest opportunity, and described him as a 37-year-old man ‘who went off the rails a little bit’ but was ‘now back on track’. Addressing the threatening calls to a colleague, Advocate Baglin said: ‘The complainant had been bullying him in the workplace.’
And of refusing to provide a blood sample, the lawyer told the court: ‘He panicked. It was an over-reaction, and he offers his apologies to the doctor.’
Advocate Baglin said Miah had been drinking on 6 June but had slept afterwards before going to the petrol station.
‘He felt he was equipped to drive,’ the lawyer said.
He added that Miah realised the offences ‘passed the custodial threshold’ but asked for a probation order and community service instead of prison.
Miah had been in custody since 6 June and Advocate Baglin said: ‘That has been a salutary lesson.’
However, Assistant Magistrate Peter Harris said that taking the offences together, a prison sentence was unavoidable.
He told Miah: ‘Messages threatening to kill can never be anything but serious offences, even if they are made in the heat of the moment. There is no justification whatsoever for messages of this nature.’
He added: ‘You were on bail for the first driving offence, and the second offence was three weeks after the first. They are so serious that I have to send you to prison.’
Miah was jailed for 12 weeks and banned from driving for three years for failing to provide a blood sample. He was jailed for three weeks for drink-driving, with that sentence to be served consecutively.
He was bound over for six months for the menacing phone calls and has been ordered to retake his driving test when his ban comes to an end.
