Moment drunk ex-soldier drives on pavements during boozy night-out
Published: 11:09, 8 December 2023 | Updated: 11:18, 8 December 2023
A drunk ex-soldier arrested for dangerous driving urinated in the street and bit a police officer’s thumb after proclaiming: ‘I pay my taxes.’
Boozed-up veteran Ashmit Limbu, 30, drunkenly drove his VW Golf through the centre of Ashford, Kent, after stumbling out of a bar in the early hours of February 18.
CCTV captured the ‘unseasoned drinker’ swerving through the town, mounting pavements, crashing into a bollard, reversing into a tree, hitting a traffic island and losing a hubcap.
He had spent the night at a restaurant and bar with astonished punters watching him as he slowly drove off, jumping a red light, narrowly avoided hitting a shopfront before crashing into two parked cars.
And when cops traced the car back to his London[2] home, Limbu, reacted abusively, urinating in the street while proclaiming ‘I don’t give a f*** – I pay my taxes’ before then chomping down on one officer’s thumb.
Video grab of Ashmit Limbu drunkenly driving around Ashford
Limbu (pictured) outside Folkestone Magistrates’ Court when he first appeared at court
The former squaddie – who was 29 at the time of his crime[3] – narrowly avoided jail this week, getting a 10-month sentence suspended for two years and a two-year driving ban.
Canterbury Crown Court heard how his car was moving so slowly during Limbu’s booze-fuelled joy ride that it was described as ‘bearing all the hallmarks’ of someone trying to drive carefully knowing they were intoxicated – and failing.
The court heard that not only were police greeted by him staggering around but he repeatedly refused to give a urine sample for an alcohol reading to be ascertained.
Described by the judge as an ‘unseasoned drinker’, Limbu was also said to have had no recollection of the later stages of his ‘shameful’ night out with colleagues.
As well as writing off his car with his drunken drive he also lost his job after he appeared in court to admit dangerous driving, failing to provide a specimen, threatening behaviour and assault of an emergency worker.
At that hearing in April, magistrates were told Limbu was ‘barely able to walk’ when he left the bar, and a passer-by was so shocked to see him start to drive that she and her partner decided to follow in their car while alerting police.
CCTV operators were also able to track some of his route until he drove out of range and headed home just under two miles away.
But at his crown court sentencing hearing prosecutor John Connor conceded that although the recording was ‘not particularly exciting and probably one of the slowest we have ever seen’, the driving itself was ‘persistent, prolonged and heavily impaired’ by alcohol.
The 29-year-old was so intoxicated he could barely drive the vehicle properly, mounting a grass verge to reach another road and almost hitting a shopfront
He was also charged with failing to provide a specimen for analysis, assault on an emergency worker, namely PC Giddings, as well as threatening behaviour towards the officer
It was while police were trying to arrest Limbu outside his home in Kennington, that he urinated while proclaiming ‘I don’t give a f*** – I pay my taxes’ before becoming agitated and biting the officer.
The court heard he was then taken to hospital after complaining about his asthma but continued to be abusive and refused to give a urine sample despite numerous requests.
Phil Rowley, defending Limbu, said the former soldier’s behaviour was ‘completely out of character as a consequence of inappropriate alcohol consumption’.
‘On that evening he goes out with work colleagues and he is not a drinker at all.
He drank in a restaurant and subsequently in a bar,’ he told the court.
‘He has no recollection of events at the bar until he sobered up and accepts entirely what has been said.
‘He is deeply remorseful and utterly ashamed of his behaviour – firstly the driving, as it was dangerous to other road users and to himself, and he is crestfallen in relation to the incident with the police officer.
‘As a former soldier who has been in a position of authority dealing with the public, he knows that behaviour is utterly shameful.’
Mr Rowley added it was ‘more by accident than design’ that the streets were quiet and on the issue of Limbu’s slow speed, he said: ‘It has all the hallmarks of someone who is aware they are intoxicated and is therefore driving very slowly.
‘It’s a drunken man trying to be careful but failing to take proper regard of their intoxication.’
The court heard that LImbu, who had served in Iraq, had not touched alcohol since, and had also managed to find work with a manufacturing company within walking distance of his home.
The injured officer was also said to have suffered nothing more than a scratch.
Imposing a 10-month jail term suspended for two years and a two-year driving ban, Recorder Edmund Fowler told the married defendant the CCTV footage showed him to be ‘clearly all over the place’.
‘It really is astonishing just how out of control you were in what I accept was a relatively low speed,’ the judge remarked. ‘It was a long piece of very poor driving.’
However, in concluding he could spare Limbu immediate custody by reason of his guilty plea, lack of previous convictions, genuine remorse and a realistic prospect of rehabilitation, Recorder Fowler added: ‘This does seem to me to be an aberration borne out of poor decision making when drunk, you not being a seasoned drinker.’
As part of his sentence, he must complete 200 hours of unpaid work and pay court costs of GBP340 within three months.