A drink driver who crashed taking his friends home from the pub ‘made a mistake’.
Joshua Duncombe ploughed his Vauxhall Astra through a fence and into a field on Tidworth Road in Boscombe, near Amesbury, on 8 March this year.
Police were called to the scene outside the 20-year-old’s home in Council Houses. He was subsequently arrested after failing a roadside breath test.
The defendant later provided an evidential sample of breath in custody – with the reading 55 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes.
The midnight crash happened on the way home from the pub, his defence solicitor Mark Glendenning told Swindon Magistrates’ Court on 26 March.
He said that Duncombe drove a “short distance” and will “pay dearly”.
Mr Glendenning spoke of how his client, an apprentice, might lose his job as a result – because he needs to be able to drive for the role.
“He deeply regrets his decision and accepts he could have put people at risk – his passengers and members of the public”, he said.
Adding: “He is just a young man who went to pub one evening and made a mistake.”
Magistrates imposed a 14-month driving disqualification and fined him £215. He must also pay costs of £85 and a £86 surcharge.
