A CHEF who stayed out late and turned up to community service drunk has been jailed.
In December, Alexander Jardim Vieira was given 140 hours of community service for driving without insurance alongside a £2,700 fine for careless driving and failing to change his address and he was disqualified from driving for a year.
In July, he received an additional ten hours, bringing him up to 150 hours of which he has completed 25.
But the Magistrate’s Court heard that he attended community service while drunk on 9 August.
Advocate Adam Harrison, defending, told the court: “This incident followed a celebratory evening the night before for a close friend who had recently become a father.
“Mr Vieira had originally planned to leave slightly earlier than he did, knowing that he had community service the following morning.
“While he attended on time, the damage was done the night before when he made a choice to stay out too late and drink too much.
“He didn’t go home earlier because he was having a good evening. They were talking about a new baby, they were talking about a new future.”
He said his client “didn’t want to miss out” on a rare occasion.
Advocate Harrison said Vieira had a “reliance” on alcohol but that he was managing to take “substantial” breaks from drinking. Advocate Harrison asked for Vieira’s order to be continued, saying this would be “constructive”.
Relief Magistrate David Le Cornu said Vieira had already “been given a chance”.
He said: “If the community service regime is to have credibility, it has to be clear that people, especially those having been given one chance, need to know that the court’s original sentence is a strong one.
“It is often said when community service orders are being passed it it is not a soft option, but in fact it is a chance for the individual to avoid going to prison.”
He said it gave him “no pleasure” to impose a six-month prison sentence.
