Holbeach man in court for drink driving for second time in as many months

A Holbeach resident has appeared in court on a drink-charge for the second time in as many months.

Joshua Swepstone lost control of a Ford Focus in Long Sutton.

The car hit a streetlight in Gedney Road and rolled multiple times before colliding with a telegraph pole.

Michael Little, prosecuting at Boston Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, said: “A witness goes to speak to Mr Swepstone, who has got out of the vehicle and initially tried to suggest he was the passenger.”

Police attended and Swepstone (26) was arrested after failing a preliminary breath test with a reading of close to three times the limit.

After being taken by ambulance to hospital in Boston, Swepstone gave an evidential sample showing 123 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80. Swepstone, of Hix Close, pleaded guilty to drink-driving on October 9 last year.

The magistrates were told that he had been in court on February 8 for the same offence a month earlier and was sentenced to 100 hours’ unpaid work and banned for a mandatory minimum of three years.

That was because there was a previous conviction for driving with excess alcohol in 2014. Phillipa Chatterton, mitigating, said her client had been drinking at a friend’s house before the crash.

“A vehicle coming in the opposite direction came over the middle line and he swerved to avoid it,” she added. “Thankfully nobody else was involved.”

Swepstone was given a fresh three-year ban, fined £480 and ordered to pay £277 in costs and victim surcharge.