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| Legal News: FOREIGN TRUCKER JAILED FOR M5 DRINK-DRIVING |
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A foreign driver was nearly four times the drink-drive limit when he was caught on a Westcountry motorway at the wheel of the heaviest type of lorry allowed on British roads.Arvydas Bielskis was seen swerving between lanes on the M5 in the 44-tonne articulated lorry as he approached Exeter in Devon.
The father of three claimed he had stopped drinking the night before he was stopped at 1pm on Monday lunchtime at Sowton near Exeter.
The 46-year-old Lithuanian was arrested and breath-tested 90 minutes later and found to be three and a half times over the legal alcohol breath limit.
Yesterday, he admitted drink driving and was jailed for 28 days and banned driving on UK roads for three years.
Prosecutor David Bowen told Exeter magistrates: "He was driving a 44-tonne articulated lorry, which is the heaviest lorry that can operate on Britain's roads.
"At 1pm he was driving on the M5 southbound and he was reported to be weaving from side to side - his wheels were off the road at points and crossed to the fast lane and back again."
Police followed him to some traffic lights off a motorway roundabout slip road and he had trouble trying to pull away when the lights turned to green.
He then mounted the kerb and traffic police armed with a phrase book, stopped Bielskis, who smelt strongly of alcohol.
Ninety minutes after his lunchtime arrest, his lowest reading at the police station was 123 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath - the legal limit is just 35.
Miss Caroline Salvatore, defending, said her client was from Lithuania and was the main breadwinner for his wife and three children back home.
She said he had lost his job after the incident and that there had been no accident, no injury, no chase and no one had been placed in any fear by his driving.
Miss Salvatore said: "The alcohol was consumed the night before and he was surprised by the high reading.
"He has been a professional driver for 27 years and has never lost his licence for any reason during that time.
"He has been driving in the UK for the past two years. He usually leaves 24 hours between drinking his last alcohol and driving his vehicle."
She said he was under stress and broke his own rules about driving after drinking. "He simply misjudged his alcohol consumption." she said.
Magistrates jailed him for 28 days - he will serve half of that term - and banned him from driving in the UK for 36 months.
They said: "It was a very high reading which was taken the day after the alcohol consumption. You were driving a 44-tonne lorry on the motorway, which we know is always busy." |
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Posted on Sunday, November 18, 2007 @ 16:04:58 EST by admin |
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