Cheshire teenager locked up for drink driving

Sep 24 2008 by Allison Dickinson, Chester Chronicle

A TEENAGER has been sentenced to 16 weeks in a youth offenders’ institution and banned from driving for three years after he was twice caught over the drink drive limit.

Joseph Leader, 19, of Andrew’s Close, Tarvin, was found to be three and a half times over the legal limit when he was first stopped by police on June 21.

Jacqui Lamb, prosecuting at Chester Magistrates Court, said Leader, who holds a provisional driving licence, had gone to a party at a friend’s house with his girlfriend but took her Peugeot 106 without her consent after she fell asleep.

She added: “He drove to Horace Black Gardens, Ellesmere Port with a friend where witnesses saw the two men get out of the car and try to get into a Vauxhall Nova by kicking it and throwing a brick at the window.”

Leader was arrested after witnesses called the police and he was taken to Blacon police station, where a breath test revealed he had 123 micrograms of alcohol per 100ml, the legal limit being 35.

Leader committed a further offence on August 5, while still on bail for the first incident.

Ms Lamb said: “Police spotted him driving at around 55mph along Chester Road, Little Sutton, which has a 40mph limit, and found him to be once again over the legal limit with a breath alcohol level of 55.”

Defending, Robin Boag admitted that, on the face of it, these matters took Leader “over the custody threshold” and that detention was inevitable.

But he added that Leader had “gone off the rails” in such a short space of time because of pressures caused by family difficulties.

He said: “He was living with his father as his parents had split up, but a couple of days before this happened, he and his father fell out and, as his father was also his employer, he lost his job.

“He was also coping with the death of his grandfather, to whom he was very close.”

Leader was accompanied by his mother, aunt and girlfriend, who were clearly upset as magistrates gave him a custodial sentence.

He was given eight weeks for each offence, to run consecutively, and banned from driving for 36 months for each offence, to run concurrently. He will also be offered a drink driving rehabilitation course.