A Northampton driver blew more than five times the legal drink drive limit just a few days after committing a similar offence.
Harramrit Sohak, 33, of Birchfield Road East, Northampton, admitted driving whilst the amount of alcohol in his breath exceeded the prescribed limit when he appeared at South East Northumberland Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, 11th June 2025.
This is an offence contrary to section 5(1) of the Road Traffic Act 1988, which has a maximum sentence of 6 months' custody and/or an unlimited fine.
Magistrates heard that the police's attention had been drawn to Sohak's purple Audi as it drove on the A1 at Team Valley, Gateshead, during the early hours of Saturday, 14th December 2024.
Ruth Forster, prosecuting, said: "The officer followed the vehicle and saw it driving over the speed limit and swerving over the white lines. He conducted a vehicle check and it came back that the same vehicle had been stopped four days previously and the driver was intoxicated and had been charged with driving with excess alcohol."
You read that correctly - just four days earlier Sohak had again been drunk at the wheel, on that occasion he was just under three times the legal drink drive limit.
In relation to the offence at hand, police followed Sohak's vehicle off the A1 and then required it to stop. The Audi parked up in the Ikea car park, at which point the 33-year-old father-of-three was required to provide a roadside specimen of breath.
Having failed that test he was arrested and taken to the police station, where he provided an evidential specimen containing 183 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath - more than five times the prescribed limit of 35 microgrammes.
James Rickerby, mitigating, told the court that his client was a family man who was remorseful for his actions.
Mr Rickerby said: "He's determined not to find himself back before the court and he's ashamed of his actions on that day. He's disgusted at himself that he not only put himself in that position but also others.
"He's got no problem with alcohol or drugs. His mental health at the time was in a bad place and he turned to alcohol to self-medicate. He's taken steps to address that himself."
Magistrates were of the view that Sohak's offence was so serious that only a custodial sentence was appropriate.
He was sentenced to 12-weeks' custody suspended for 12 months.
He was also disqualified from driving for a period of 36 months.
Given the circumstances, remorseful family man or not, I would suggest that Sohak has avoided immediate custody by the narrowest of margins.
It is to be hoped that he really has learnt his lesson this time, as police words of advice clearly fell on deaf ears when he was arrested for the first offence.
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