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A wedding guest who drove home from the event while more than three times the legal alcohol limit has been banned from getting behind the wheel for three years.
Steven Francis Chevalier (43) was also sentenced to 130 hours' community service after appearing in the Magistrate's Court this week.
The court also heard that he had not informed vehicle authorities of a change in address, and had refused to confirm to police that he had been driving the car at the time. He was fined £1,200 for those two offences.
St Saviour Centenier Steven Laffoley-Edwards, prosecuting, said Chevalier had attended a wedding at Samares Manor on 22 July this year and had been drinking heavily there, yet was seen driving away afterwards towards Grouville.
The police went to his home in St Clement that evening and found his blue Fiat Punto was still warm, indicating that had recently been driven. But Chevalier denied he had been driving it and did not say who had.
Pictured: The case was heard in the Magistrate's Court.
Mr Laffoley-Edwards added: "His speech was slurred and he was unstable on his feet. He was agitated and argumentative.”
When he eventually agreed to give a breath specimen at police headquarters it showed he had 112 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal maximum is 35 micrograms.
Chevalier was convicted of drink-driving, failing to notify authorities of a change in address and failing to identify a driver, and Advocate Chris Baglin, defending, conceded: “We are clearly in custodial territory.”
However he said: “It was a relatively short distance and there was no-one else in the car. He recognises he is fortunate that the consequences were not more serious.”
Chevalier had no recent previous convictions, so Relief Magistrate David Le Cornu told him: “I am able to make an order for community service.”
He has been allowed to pay the fine at £50 per week. He must retake the driving test after the three-year ban has elapsed.
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