A grossly irresponsible lorry driver has been jailed for travelling on the M6 when he was four-times the drink drive limit.
Leszek Marian Nawrot, 63, from Poland, admitted driving whilst the amount of alcohol in his breath exceeded the prescribed limit when he appeared at Warrington Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, 10th November 2020.
This is an offence contrary to section 5(1) of the Road Traffic Act 1988, which has a maximum penalty of 6 months' custody and/or an unlimited fine.
Magistrates heard that Nawrot's lorry was observed swerving between lanes on the M6 in Cheshire on Sunday, 8th November 2020.
According to reports, the vehicle had to be boxed in to prevent it from continuing its perilous journey.
Police attended the scene and required Nawrot to undertake a roadside breath test, which he failed and was duly arrest.
At the police station he provided an evidential specimen of breath containing 139 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, which was fractionally less than four-times the prescribed limit of 35 microgrammes.
An excerpt from the relevant sentencing guidelines is shown in the image below.
A reading of 139 microgrammes would place Nawrot's offence in the top band, with a starting point of 12 weeks' custody. The offence is aggravated by Nawrot's evidently poor standard of driving, on a busy motorway, in an HGV.
Referring to the guidelines, Magistrates quite rightly decided that the offence was so serious that only a custodial sentence was appropriate.
They sentenced Nawrot to 16 weeks' custody.
He was also ordered to pay £85 towards prosecution costs, £128 victim surcharge and disqualified from driving for 3 years.
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