Serial Blackburn drink driver jailed

3:15pm Friday 23rd May 2008

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A SERIAL drink driver has been jailed after turning up for a probation appointment with a pint of lager in his hand.

The case of Amir Saeed, 30, sparked outrage in February after magistrates decided not to give him a prison sentence for his tenth drink drive conviction in less than a decade.

But now he is in jail after Blackburn magistrates were told he had totally failed' to co-operate with the suspended prison sentence.

Applying for revocation of the supervision order, the probation service reported that Saeed had failed to keep numerous appointments.

They said that on May 8 he attended at Blackburn probation office with a pint of lager having been to the pub before his appointment.

When challenged about his actions Saeed said he could not leave his drink at the pub so he had brought it with him.

At the time he was originally sentenced Saeed was warned that any breach of the order would result in an immediate custodial sentence.

And magistrates this week jailed Saeed, of Bank Top, Blackburn, for 90 days.

Saeed had previously pleaded guilty at the town's magistrates to drink driving on December 16 and again on January 1.

He was sentenced to four months in prison suspended for 18 months, made subject to community supervision for 18 months and banned from driving for four years and ordered to pay £120 costs.

Catherine Allan, prosecuting, told the court on that occasion that Saeed was on bail for the first offence when he was tested at 10am on New Year's Day and found to be double the legal limit.

She revealed that Saeed had been convicted of drink driving in 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2003 and failing to provide a specimen for analysis twice in 2004 and once in 2007.

Andrew Church-Taylor, defending, said Saeed had miscalculated the amount of alcohol he had consumed on the first occasion and had only been marginally over the limit.

On the second occasion he had gone to the home of a friend with whom he had celebrated the New Year and had ended up being attacked by four men.

"After they had set about him they told him to move his car and leave," said Mr Church-Taylor.

"He assumes somebody witnessed the attack because the police were on the scene very quickly and he was arrested."

After he was spared jail in February, road safety charities said Saeed should have been sent to prison to send a deterrent to drink drivers.