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Drink Driving........again
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Again drink driver getting off lightly !!!
So the driver in question was 3 times over the legal limit, No insurance and also has a previous conviction of drink driving and he gets a lousy 4 month sentence. He will not serve all of that if he has good behaviour. So what is this sentence sending out to other drink drivers ?
Pathetic !!!!
Edited cos the link wouldn't work so ive just copied it instead:
Teenager is locked up for drink-driving
A TEENAGER who drove while more than three times the limit was jailed for four months yesterday.
Matthew Large, 18, of Gouldsmith Gardens, Darlington, was banned from driving for three years at South Durham Magistrates' Court.
When stopped by police on February 16, he was found to have 121 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes. He pleaded guilty to drink-driving and having no insurance.
Chris Bunting, in mitigation, said Large was usually a very responsible person but had a problem with drink. He had a previous conviction for drink-driving.
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So the driver in question was 3 times over the legal limit, No insurance and also has a previous conviction of drink driving and he gets a lousy 4 month sentence. He will not serve all of that if he has good behaviour. So what is this sentence sending out to other drink drivers ?
Pathetic !!!!
Edited cos the link wouldn't work so ive just copied it instead:
Teenager is locked up for drink-driving
A TEENAGER who drove while more than three times the limit was jailed for four months yesterday.
Matthew Large, 18, of Gouldsmith Gardens, Darlington, was banned from driving for three years at South Durham Magistrates' Court.
When stopped by police on February 16, he was found to have 121 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes. He pleaded guilty to drink-driving and having no insurance.
Chris Bunting, in mitigation, said Large was usually a very responsible person but had a problem with drink. He had a previous conviction for drink-driving.
Please select next story:Inquiry opens after pensioner found ...Teenager is locked up for drink-drivingMen remanded in custodyA green and pleasant land, apart ...Runners seek old team-mates for race ...News from the Darlington & Stockton ...
Back to the news index
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People get banned but they still drive, this fella has been done for drink driving, no insurance, previously he was done for drink driving so he aint bothered about breaking the law, so whats a 3 yr ban gonna do ?
but why ? they should in effect throw the book at him. First time offences are slightly different, yes they drove whilst under the influence but many would never do it again. When you have someone who has already been done for drink driving then HAMMER the c**ts (nicked your saying);)
Isn't that what they started doing with rape in the 80s? It hasn't made that much difference has it? People are still raping innocent girls/women. And boys/men for that matter.
I suspect most offenders are like them but there will always be a minority of tossers who don't give a toss and drive while banned, or without a licence for that matter, no insurance, no MOT on the car, etc etc. What to do with them?
By the way, did anyone see the footage of that woman (I think she was a trainee copper) who was so pissed she drove for 10 miles up the wrong way on a motorway before she realised and did a U turn? A police chopper was following her and filming and it was a small miracle everyone managed to dodge her. Shocking...
you want to kill yourself, fine, take a gun to your head dont get drunk in a car and effectively risk killing an innocent human being and wrecking loads of lives. its such a selfish act!:mad:
Thankfully I've never been caught and I've never hurt anyone. After losing three mates to drink driving (all seperate incidents) and one getting banged up for it, I wised up. My mate got 18 months even though his passenger died. I think that was enough.
Unfortunately the very nature of alcohol means that the problem of drink drivers is not going to be solved easily. Alcohol makes people confident and think they're indestructable.
Well then lock em up and throw away the key if they cant abide by the law :mad:
Prison won't deter that. Prison will PUNISH it. Which is the whole point.
Noone in society apart from the left wing hippies wants to see convicted murderers or rapists wandering the streets, they deserve to die for their crime, but at the moment we have to put up with them living in prison.
So just ban him for life from driving. A person who harms others whilst drink driving deserves prison!
By David Sapsted
(Filed: 01/05/2004)
A drink driver yesterday admitted running down and killing a "smiley, beautiful" A-level student as she returned from midnight mass with her family early on Christmas Day.
In an emotionally charged court appearance, Craig Smith, 22, from Eaton Socon in Cambridgeshire, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and drink driving as friends and members of the girl's family, who packed the public gallery at Peterborough Crown Court, wept openly.
Amy Gonzales, an 18-year-old who loved to dance and act, died four weeks after being run down as she crossed the road with Paul Ray, her boyfriend, in St Neots at about 1am on December 25 last year.
Her family has been unable to celebrate birthdays, Mother's Day or Easter since the tragedy; both her mother and father have been off work; and Mr Ray, 21, a trainee PE teacher, remains on crutches as a result of the injuries he suffered in the crash.
Nobody can bring themselves to unwrap the presents that Amy had placed under the family tree a few hours before the crash.
Melanie Gonzales, 43, sobbed quietly in court yesterday as her daughter's name was spoken, while friends, wearing sunflower buttonholes in memory of Amy, shouted "killer" as Smith stood in the dock.
The court was told that Smith had 55mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath - the legal limit is 35mg - when he was arrested. He was travelling at 56mph in the town centre at the time of the crash.
Adjourning sentencing for a month, Judge Nicholas Coleman told him: "A custodial sentence is almost inevitable. I propose to accede to the request for pre-sentence reports but you shouldn't assume by that a non-custodial sentence is likely.
"It is necessary to find out a little more about you."
Kevin Gonzales, 45, Amy's father, broke down afterwards as he spoke about the "happy, smiley, beautiful young woman" whom Smith had taken from the family.
"She was just starting to blossom," he said. "Everyone was happier for knowing her. She was so full of life and had so much to offer. Her death is everyone's loss. We were one large happy family, always laughing and joking. We're absolutely devastated and just can't believe she's not here any more."
Mr Gonzales, a construction manager, said the couple's other children - Jake, 17, and Claudia, 15 - were still struggling to cope with the loss of their sister. "We're just living day by day at the moment. We can't function normally because of the grief, bereavement and shock."
He recalled the night of the crash when, after church, he and his wife had waited in the car while Amy and her boyfriend went with friends to buy a kebab. "The town was crowded and the church bells were ringing for Christmas. Everyone was celebrating.
"Then, suddenly, Melanie started shaking and we could see a car and lots of smoke. I went to see what was happening and Amy and Paul were lying in the road. There were hundreds of people screaming and shouting. Paul was conscious but Amy had severe head injuries.
"I knelt down to feel her pulse and I was lying in her blood. I kept telling her not to leave but she was so badly injured I knew we would lose her."
Her parents kept a constant vigil by Amy's bedside at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge for the next four weeks. "We actually said goodbye to her four times, at the side of the road, then two times at the hospital before the final time when she just couldn't fight anymore," said Mr Gonzales.
Mr Ray, who had been going out with Amy for 14 months and who suffered multiple fractures to his leg and a collapsed lung in the crash, said outside the court that he did not regard the death as an accident.
"He [Smith] had every intention of getting in the car at the end of the night when he had had that first drink. He was treating it like a race track and people further down the road had to jump out of the way. I think the sentence should be life, similar to manslaughter or murder as that's what it is in the end," he said.
"He has taken away Amy and left our family and friends devastated."
Sorry to hear that
I hope he is severely punished for what he did, however in all reality I presume he will get a little slap on the hand and be told dont do it again...........like all the rest.