Mansfield ex miner's TWO boozy crashes inside a fortnight

A 64-year-old Mansfield man crashed his car while drunk then came off his scooter less than a fortnight later, when he was also boozed-up, a court heard.
Mansfield Magistrates CourtMansfield Magistrates Court
Mansfield Magistrates Court

Colin Dawson’s car left the road and hit a lamp post on Abbot Road, Mansfield, at 10am on May 28.

Police attended his Woodborough Road address, at 2pm, when he admitted taking a drink the night before,” said prosecutor Neil Hollett.

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A test revealed he had 95 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, when the legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

And on June 9, at 2pm, he came off his motor scooter on Woodborough Road, in Mansfield, and hit a parked van, after failing to make a sharp left hand turn when the road was wet.

A test showed he had 75 microgrammes of alcohol in his system on that occasion.

“He told police he couldn’t understand how he was over the limit because he had last drunk at 8pm the night before,” said Mr Hollett.

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Dawson admitted the first offence on June 12, and the second when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Monday.

“I have got to look seriously at sending you straight to prison,” said district judge Andrew Meachin.

The court heard Dawson was taking medication for cholestrol and high blood pressure.

Greta Percival, of the probation service, said on the first occasion, Dawson had been at a scooter rally the night before and was drinking into the early hours of the morning.

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On the second occasion, the retired miner was adamant that he had not consumed alcohol the night before, she said, and in fact it was the night before that.

He said he was a real ale drinker who drank up to four times a week, but never had anymore than six drinks at any one time, she added.

Morgan Hogarth, mitigating, said it was an “unusual situation” for a man with no previous conditions.

He asked district judge Andrew Meachin to step back from immediate custody because imprisonment would have a bad impact on Dawson’s wife.

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The district judge told him: “You have driven with excess alcohol and then again while on bail. Both are high readings in the sense they are more than double the legal limit.

“You have had an accident in each case.”

Dawson was given 12 weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months.

He was banned for three years, but was offered a drink drive rehabilitation course which will reduce his disqualification by a quarter if completed before July 2019.

He was fined £270 and must pay £85 costs and a victim surcharge of £115.

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