A binge-drinker was nearly five times the legal limit when he crashed his Honda into a parked car on Spalding’s Winsover Road,
Karol Wesolowski blew 168 microgrammes of alcohol in breath – the highest reading presiding magistrate George Hoyles had witnessed in more than 25 years on the bench. The legal limit is 35mcgs.
Wesolowski, who had no previous convictions, was given a 12 week prison sentence, suspended for a year.
He will be supervised by probation for a year and must attend alcohol treatment sessions.
Spalding magistrates on Thursday handed him an outright three year driving ban – something normally given to drivers who have a previous drink-drive conviction within the last ten years.
Wesolowski (35), of Castle Close, Spalding, admitted being over the limit on May 15.
He will have to pay £85 costs and a £100 victim surcharge.
Paul Wood, prosecuting, said a witness saw Wesolowski’s Honda Accord crash into a car parked at the side of the road at 5.30pm and smoke coming from his car’s engine.
Mr Wood continued: “She saw Mr Wesolowski, in her words, stumbling about all over the place.”
Police were called and Wesolowski failed a roadside breath test.
Mr Wood said the evidential machine at the police station produced “that very high reading of 168 in breath”.
The probation service and the drink and drug help agency Addaction interviewed Wesolowski at court before giving pre-sentence reports to magistrates.
Probation officer Angela Jones said Wesolowski drinks four cans every day, but at weekends he indulges in “excessive binge drinking to the point where he is unsure how much he does some times drink”.
Solicitor Mike Alexander said Weslowski’s first offence had crossed the custody threshold, but if he were handed a sentence of four months he would be out after two and would not get the level of help with his alcohol problem that he would on a suspended sentence order.
Mr Hoyles told Weslowski his alcohol reading was the highest he’d seen in twenty-five-and-a-half years as a magistrate.
He said: “There’s nothing famous in that – it’s more of a disgrace.”