A CHEF who stayed out late to celebrate the birth of a friend’s child, meaning he was still drunk for his community service the following morning 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 recently 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.
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.
Vieira was jailed for six months.
