Serial Burnley drink-drive 'menace' lied to police (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Serial Burnley drink-drive 'menace' lied to police

5:00pm Monday 18th February 2013 in News By Wendy Barlow, Court reporter

A SERIAL drink driver, dubbed a ‘menace on the roads’, has been jailed for 12 months after he gave police a false name when he was caught a fifth time.

Burnley Crown Court heard Stephen Jonathan, 36, used one of his four aliases when stopped by police.

But he was rumbled when he sent his wife a text asking her to collect the car. She rang the police station, saying her husband had been detained and giving his real details.

The hearing was told Jonathan, who was nearly three times the limit, had five convictions for getting behind the wheel while banned, three for excess alcohol and two for failing to provide a specimen for analysis and had served prison terms in the past.

The defendant, of Harold Street, Burnley, admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice, driving while disqualified and drink driving. He was banned for three years.

Sarah Statham, prosecuting, said Jonathan was last disqualified in February 2010, for five years.

He was stopped by police at 1.15am on December 23, after he was seen driving at speed and swaying all over the road.

The defendant went on the M65, narrowly missing other vehicles and when he came off at junction eight, he was stopped.

Miss Statham said Jonathan gave a positive roadside breath test and a further sample at the police station showed 82 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35. He gave a false name and date of birth, but was found out after the text to his wife.

The defendant had 40 previous offences on his record, committed his first drink-drive offence in 1997 and his first driving while disqualified a year later.

He had been locked up for 150 days in February 2010, for falling to provide a specimen, driving without due care and attention, no licence and no insurance, and in September 2011, was sentenced to 18 weeks for disqualified driving.

Daniel Prowse, for Jonathan, said he had had alcohol with his works manager and after a row with his partner, he left the house.

The barrister said: “Although he could have walked, for some reason, in drink, he chooses to drive instead. It was a truly foolish decision.”

Mr Prowse said the defendant’s lies were doomed to failure and were always going to be discovered.

Sentencing, Judge Beverley Lunt said: “You are a menace on the roads, but you don’t care.

“You are prepared to drive with no insurance, no licence and with excess alcohol.”