AN 18-YEAR-OLD man arrested for drink-driving admitted the offence but said he was only answering a friend’s request for a lift.
Henry Alexander David De Carteret was fined £1,500 and banned from driving for 15 months for the offence.
At 12.20am on 28 May, the States police saw De Carteret near the traffic lights at the entrance to Howard Davis Park, apparently holding a mobile phone while driving.
St Saviour Centenier Steven Laffoley-Edwards told the Magistrate’s Court that when officers stopped him, they could smell alcohol on his breath. A roadside breath test gave a reading of 50 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal maximum is 35 micrograms.
A subsequent blood test at police headquarters showed 113 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, against a legal maximum of 80 milligrams.
De Carteret told the court: ‘I did not plan to drive. But a friend asked me to give him a lift home. That’s when everything happened.’
Relief Magistrate David Le Cornu told him: ‘That amount of alcohol makes you a danger to other road users.’
He ordered him to retake his driving test after the 15 months had elapsed.
