Telford drink-driver crashed after 'year from hell'
A man who crashed his car into a roundabout while more than four times over the drink-drive limit had had "12 months from hell", a court heard.
Lee Gwilt had drunk a bottle of vodka and four cans of lager on November 1 last year when he crashed on Castlefields roundabout in Madeley, Telford Magistrates Court was told.
Mrs Abigail Hall, prosecuting, said the defendant had left Castlefields Way and mounted the roundabout, almost coming over the other side. She said Gwilt, 37, had told police that he had clipped the kerb.
After failing a roadside breath test Gwilt, of Portley Road in Dawley, was arrested and later blew a reading of 150 micrograms in 100 millilitres of breath at the police station. The legal limit is 35. Gwilt admitted driving with excess alcohol.
He was given a 16-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, disqualified from driving for 36 months and ordered to pay a total of £365 in court costs. Mrs Hall said the defendant had told police he had been drinking because "he was bored while he was at home off sick" and had gone to collect a friend after a row with his partner.
Mr Paul Nicholas, for Gwilt, said he had been through "12 months from hell". He said Gwilt had been a "hardworking family man" with four children until his partner of 12 years had "disappeared out of their lives". He then had to finish with work because of a back injury, he added.
The loss of salary had meant Gwilt was struggling with his mortgage and looking after the children, who had subsequently gone to live with their mother.
As a result Gwilt was "a man in complete turmoil". Mr Nicholas added Gwilt had only recently begun drinking. "He knows what he did was wrong," he said, adding that Gwilt was slowly returning to work.
