A driver who admitted to drinking multiple cans of lager before crashing and overturning his car was banned from driving and handed a suspended prison sentence.
Craig Baker, aged 40, lost control of his car while driving along Nottingham Road, Eastwood.
His red Nissan Quasqai collided with a parked car before rolling onto its roof shortly after 7pm on Tuesday 3 February.
Baker emerged from the wreckage with only minor facial injuries and also had the good fortune not to injure anyone else.
His luck soon ran out when a responding police officer was alerted to the strong smell of alcohol on his breath.
Baker, slurring his words and unsteady on his feet, admitted at the side of the road to drinking ‘four cans’ before the collision and was arrested on suspicion of drink driving.
He was taken to hospital for treatment but later refused to complete a blood test – saying there was no point as he would be over the limit anyway.
During his police interview he admitted to drinking four or five cans of lager on an empty stomach before getting into his car to go and buy tobacco.
It was on the way to the shop, he said, that he swerved to avoid an oncoming car in the residential street before colliding with a parked vehicle.
Appearing at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on 19 February, Baker, of Newthorpe Common, Newthorpe, pleaded guilty to failing to provide a specimen for analysis.
He was handed an eight-week prison sentence suspended for 12 months and banned from driving for three years.
PC Harry Brown, of Nottinghamshire Police, said:
“Baker could easily have killed himself or someone else with his reckless behaviour and is lucky this incident ended in the way it did.
“As this case demonstrates, drivers who have been drinking cannot escape the consequences of their actions by declining to submit to roadside or hospital tests.
“Failing to comply is a serious offence in itself which – as Baker has just found out – comes with equally serious consequences to drinking and driving offences.”
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