News

The Boston Standard has reported that a motorist who was found to be more than three times over the drink-drive limit had his three-year-old child in the car with him when he was stopped by police.

Andrzej Sieron was allegedly driving from his home to the shop to buy some ingredients for dinner when officers noticed the light was out on his rear number plate and got him to stop.

But when he was given a breath test he was found to have 120ųg of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath – almost 3 ½ times over the legal limit of 35ųg.

Mr Sieron has pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol.  Unfortunately, he has a previous drink driving-related conviction from June 2008, which means that he can expect to receive a minimum period of disqualification of 36 months, and indeed it could be as much as 60 months.  Anybody convicted of a drink driving-related offence more than once in a ten year period is automatically disqualified for the minimum period of 3 years.  To further aggravate matters, Mr Sieron’s reading of 120ųg could attract a custodial sentence.  The Magistrates Court Guidelines suggest that for any reading above 120ųg the starting point is 12 weeks in prison.

The article suggests that the Court have requested probation reports, which indicates that Mr Sieron’s case has been adjourned for sentencing following the preparation of a pre-sentence report.  This means that custody is a real possibility in this case.

A further aggravating feature is of course the fact that Mr Sieron had his three year old child with him in his vehicle.  It would not be unheard of for the child to be taken away from him in the circumstances.