Ban for drink-driver who crashed Audi into brook

Friday 21 January 2022

A 23-year-old man, who drunkenly crashed his Audi into a brook, removed the licence plates and gave them to a kissing couple, has been handed a £2,500 fine and a driving ban.

Mario Parvanov appeared before the Magistrate's Court on Thursday facing four driving charges, all of which he admitted.

Legal Adviser Sophie Lister told Court that on 6 November, Parvanov drove without a licence or insurance.

The offence was discovered after he was stopped by police officers carrying out patrols in the area of Mulcaster Street. Although he didn’t have an insurance disc, he told officers he was insured but a check on police system showed he didn’t possess a Jersey licence so he was issued with a notice to provide both documents to the police.

The insurance policy he sent to the police had only started on 9 November and Parvanov admitted he didn’t have a Jersey licence, although he had a Bulgarian one.

On 26 December, around 12:15, an islander called the police after witnessing an accident in Vallée des Vaux.

The police saw a couple kissing nearby, one of whom was holding licence plates. Parvanov was seen walking fast down the road and when the police circled back, he appeared from a dirt track. He was covered from the waist down in mud and his trousers were sodden. He appeared to be intoxicated and the police said they could smell alcohol on him.

He admitted he had crashed his car after slipping a corner, which he said “scared the s*** out him”.

He failed a roadside breath test, with a reading of 40mg in 100ml of breath, and was arrested and cautioned.

His Audi was located in a brook, around 500m away from the road where he had been arrested. An empty packet of Stella Artois was next to the driver door.

Parvanov told officers he had been persuaded by a friend to pick him up. He said he had driven from town and couldn’t have been driving for more than three minutes. He said he was driving around 15mph to 20mph and that the conditions were “wet and slippery with debris on the road”.

He said he had told the woman in the couple to hold the plates and that he was not thinking when he took them off.  

He said he had only drunk a corona and a Bacardi with coke earlier in the evening.

Advocate Allana Binnie, defending, said that at the time of the first incident, there had been a “genuine misunderstanding” over Parvanov’s insurance and he was insured for another car. She also said he didn’t know he needed a Jersey driving licence.

She said that on the night of the crash, he had been “badgered” by his friend to pick him up and had “foolishly agreed”.

She said it had been “foolish behaviour” to move the plates but that it had been his friend’s idea and that Parvanov was in a “deep state of shock”.

She said Parvanov had forgotten to change his driving licence as he was dealing with the loss of his mum.

Assistant Magistrate Peter Harris fined Parvanov a total of £2,500, to be paid within four weeks, for the offences and disqualified him from driving for 12 months.