Drink driver crashed car in Radipole Lane, Weymouth

Matthew Chambers, aged 21, of Clarence Road in Chickerell, pleaded guilty to driving a motor vehicle after consuming so much alcohol that the proportion of it in his breath was 66 microgrammes in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes. He appeared before Weymouth Magistrates Court on Tuesday, January 2.

Tara Olney, prosecuting, said Chambers swerved to avoid a car and hit a lamppost and then a wall in Radipole Lane, Weymouth on Saturday, December 23. In a police statement, Chambers said he had drank "three pints of Moretti (lager) whilst watching the football at a pub". He said he felt "okay to drive" and a car pulled out in front of him causing him to "swerve to avoid" the other car.

His car, a Volkswagen Scirocco, was written off in the crash. Chambers spent 15 hours in police custody which Debra Scudamore, mitigating, said "traumatised him" and "he wasn't able to sleep for a week" afterwards. Magistrates gave him a 17-month driving ban.

He was fined GBP250, ordered to pay GBP85 costs and a victim surcharge of GBP100.