A BOUNCY castle manager who was providing entertainment at this year’s Liberation Day celebrations in Parade Gardens has admitted driving his van while over the legal alcohol limit.
Gerald Larkins (51) was banned from driving for 15 months and fined £2,000 when he appeared in the Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, 8 July.
The court heard that a bouncy castle had broken and that he had loaded it into his white Nissan van before driving to Union Street and The Parade.
St Helier Centenier Jane Pearce said honorary police officers on duty at the event on Sunday 11 May were told that Larkins had been seen drinking alcohol there.
Just before 7.20pm that evening they arrested him on suspicion of drinking and driving. A breath test at police headquarters showed he had 54 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal maximum is 35 micrograms.
Larkins admitted the offence but said he had drunk only one-and-a-half pints of beer, telling the court: “I didn’t think it would put me over. There’s no way I would have taken the chance.”
He added: “I’m extremely embarrassed. It was an aberration. It’s not my true character.”
He also said he was the only driver in his family and would be unable to work if banned from driving.
The Magistrate, Bridget Shaw, accepted that Larkins was of previously good character but told him: “You were comfortably over the limit.”
She granted him three months to pay the fine.
