A man has been jailed for four months and banned from driving for four years under Guernsey’s new tougher motoring laws – after he injured someone else while drink driving.
34-year-old Matthew Luscombe was sentenced by Guernsey Magistrate yesterday after ‘causing a serious injury by dangerous driving’.
Guernsey Police have confirmed this was the first time someone in Guernsey was charged with causing a serious injury by dangerous driving, which was only written into the island’s laws as an offence last year.
Under that updated law he could have been sentenced to up to five years in prison.
Causing serious injury by dangerous driving will carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison, while causing serious injury by careless or inconsiderate driving could get you two years behind bars.
Bailiwick express article, march 2025
Guernsey Police said Luscombe’s vehicle collided with another vehicle causing serious injury to the driver. He was found to be double the legal limit for alcohol after giving a breath sample.
“This is a prime example of the impact the irresponsible decision to drink-drive can have on innocent people,” said a police spokesperson.
“Don’t be selfish by risking another person’s life. Don’t drink and drive,” they added.
Guernsey’s motoring laws were changed just under a year ago with new categories created for offences, aimed at making the island’s roads safer with new guidelines for prosecuting potentially lethal drivers.
The ordinances that were updated and introduced last March were the ‘Road Traffic (Drink Driving) (Guernsey) Law, 1989 (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025’, the ‘Road Traffic (Guernsey) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025’, and the ‘Road Traffic (Causing Death or Serious Injury by Driving) (Guernsey) Law, 2025’.
The new ‘Road Traffic (Guernsey) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025’, saw a more detailed explanation of what constitutes driving dangerously drawn up, and it also now clarifies the meaning of driving without due care and attention, and driving without reasonable consideration for others.
Under the law, ‘dangerous’ now refers to the “danger either of injury to any person or of serious damage to property” caused by the individual’s driving.
This law also now covers horse riders, or people riding other animals, as well as motor vehicles.
The States also updated laws to clarify what constitutes ‘dangerous driving’, ‘driving without due care and attention’, ‘driving without reasonable consideration’, and ‘serious injury’.
The updated laws mean the courts can now convict someone of the less severe offence of ‘careless/inconsiderate driving’ if the facts don’t fully support a ‘dangerous driving’ charge.
The States also introduced specified legal limits for driving when having taken controlled drugs and created an offence of driving whilst over the prescribed limit for those drugs.
Convictions under the newly clarified laws will carry mandatory driving disqualifications, and defined maximum prison sentences.
Death by dangerous driving carries a maximum of 14 years imprisonment, whilst death by careless or inconsiderate driving carries a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment.
Causing serious injury by dangerous driving carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, while causing serious injury by careless or inconsiderate driving could get you two years behind bars.
The laws replaced were originally put in place in 1957, the same year the USSR launched Sputnik, Elvis Bought Graceland and Harold MacMillan became the UK’s Prime Minister, to offer some perspective on how much the world and the roads have changed in the 67 years before they were updated.
If you believe someone is drink driving, you can report it to the emergency services Control Room on 222 222. In an emergency, phone 999.