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| Motorist 'had 25 pints of lager' | Motorist 'had 25 pints of lager' |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| A motorist who admitted to police he had drunk up to 25 pints of lager before getting behind the wheel of his car has been spared a prison term. | A motorist who admitted to police he had drunk up to 25 pints of lager before getting behind the wheel of his car has been spared a prison term. |
| Stuart Walker could not stand unaided and was unable to give a breathalyser test when police found him in a lay-by. | Stuart Walker could not stand unaided and was unable to give a breathalyser test when police found him in a lay-by. |
| Walker, 60, of Ashbury Close, Cambridge, admitted driving while over the limit. | Walker, 60, of Ashbury Close, Cambridge, admitted driving while over the limit. |
| He was given a three-month jail term, suspended for two years, and was banned from driving for five years. | He was given a three-month jail term, suspended for two years, and was banned from driving for five years. |
| Magistrate Elizabeth Cox told the crane operator: "This is totally unacceptable and very dangerous behaviour. | |
| "This could have had very serious consequences not just for yourself but for other members of the public." | "This could have had very serious consequences not just for yourself but for other members of the public." |
| Walker, who was also convicted of drink-driving in 1998, had driven his Peugeot to the Woolpack pub in the village of Sawston and then drove home after his marathon drinking session on 14 May. | |
| He pulled into a lay-by on the A1301 Sawston bypass to phone his son, but a passing police car pulled in and officers smelled alcohol on Walker's breath, the court heard. | He pulled into a lay-by on the A1301 Sawston bypass to phone his son, but a passing police car pulled in and officers smelled alcohol on Walker's breath, the court heard. |
| The 20 or 25 pints, there is no way he could have had that and lived in one evening Monica Lentin, mitigating for Walker | |
| A breath test later found he was more than three times over the legal limit with 131 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath - the legal level for driving is 35 micrograms. | A breath test later found he was more than three times over the legal limit with 131 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath - the legal level for driving is 35 micrograms. |
| Interviewed the following day, Walker told officers he had drunk between 20 and 25 pints and could not remember leaving the pub just after 2200 BST. | Interviewed the following day, Walker told officers he had drunk between 20 and 25 pints and could not remember leaving the pub just after 2200 BST. |
| But Monica Lentin, mitigating for Walker, said: "The 20 or 25 pints, there is no way he could have had that and lived in one evening." | |
| After the case, road safety charity Brake said Walker should have been jailed. | |
| "Walker showed no regard for the lives of other road users and could quite easily have killed or injured someone when he got behind the wheel after 20 pints," Brake general manager Sarah Fatica said. | |
| A Cambridgeshire Police spokeswoman said: "This was a very unusual incident - one of the highest readings our traffic officers have ever seen if not the highest." |