Court report: Man admits driving whilst over the limit

Andrius Padelis, 34, of South Terrace, admitted driving with excess alcohol when he appeared before magistrates at Boston on March 29.

Kate Minihane, prosecuting, said a police officer returning home from work at 4am on January 22 saw Padelis in a Vauxhall Astra which had collided with a traffic light in Sleaford Road.

She said Padelis was ‘stumbling, swaying and unsteady’ and there was a beer bottle cap on the dashboard.

She said other officers attended and Padelis was arrested following a positive breath test, giving a later reading of 112 mgs of alcohol in his breath, the legal limit being 35.

Ms Minihane said that in interview, Padelis told police he had not been driving but that he had been at a party and his car had been stolen and that he had chased after it and got the keys back after the car had collided with the traffic light and that was why the keys were in his pocket.

Mitigating, Lisa Elkington said he had panicked at the police station and that he had been at a party and drunk quite a lot of beer and vodka.

She said the alcohol had run out and he had gone to get some more.

After hearing from the Probation Service, magistrates banned Padelis from driving for 26 months but offered him the drink drivers’ rehabilitation course to reduce the period of the ban by six months.

He was also ordered to undergo an electronically monitored alcohol abstinence order for 90 days, to attend 10 rehabilitation days and to pay a total of £175 in court costs and charges.