A 42-YEAR-OLD man caught drinking and driving for the third time has been jailed for seven months and banned from driving for four years.
Christopher Rennell apologised, but the Magistrate, Bridget Shaw, said: “Each time you are sorry and say it won’t happen again. Yet here you are.”
St Brelade Centenier Amanda Wright, prosecuting, told the Magistrate’s Court that the latest incident took place on the night of 17 August. A taxi was called to take him from St John to his home in St Lawrence, but when it arrived he chose instead to drive home in his own car.
Mrs Wright said the taxi driver followed him, saw him swerving across the road and contacted the States police. Rennell was found to have 95 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal maximum is 35 micrograms.
She added that he had two previous convictions for drink-driving.
Advocate Julia-Anne Dix, defending, said Rennell had undergone three traumatic experiences that left him with suspected post-traumatic stress disorder.
And she added: “It’s not every day that the court sees so many positive references.”
The Magistrate acknowledged that Rennell pleaded guilty early, but imposed a jail sentence telling him: “You put the public at serious risk. You have had community service orders before.”
She also ordered him to retake the driving test after the four-year ban has elapsed.
