A 43-YEAR-OLD man who drove home from a wedding while more than three times over the legal alcohol limit has been sentenced to 130 hours of community service, fined £1,200 and banned from driving for three years.
The Magistrate’s Court heard that Steven Francis Chevalier also did not inform the relevant authorities of a change in address, and refused to confirm to the States police that he had been driving the car at the time.
St Saviour Centenier Steven Laffoley-Edwards, prosecuting, said Chevalier attended a wedding at Samarès Manor on 22 July.
After drinking several beers while there, he was seen driving off in a blue Fiat Punto towards Grouville.
When the police went to his home in St Clement that evening they found the car outside, with the engine still warm, but Chevalier denied he had been driving it and refused to say who had.
“His speech was slurred and he was unstable on his feet,” Mr Laffoley-Edwards said. “He was agitated and argumentative.”
At first, Chevalier refused to give a breath sample at police headquarters, but later provided a specimen. It showed he had 112 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath – the legal maximum is 35 micrograms.
He was convicted of drink-driving, failing to notify authorities of a change in address and failing to identify a driver.
Advocate Chris Baglin, defending, said of the combination of offences: “We are clearly in custodial territory.”
However, he pointed out that the car journey “was a relatively short distance and there was no one else in the car”.
He added: “He recognises he is fortunate that the consequences were not more serious.”
Chevalier had no recent previous convictions. Relief Magistrate David Le Cornu told him: “I am able to make an order for community service.”
As well as that order and the driving ban, Chevalier was fined £1,000 for failing to
identify a driver and £200 for failing to update his address details.
He has been allowed to pay the fine at the rate of £50 per week. He must also retake his driving test after the three-year ban ends.
