A man from Penrith has appeared in court and pleaded guilty to drink-driving.
District Judge Gerald Chalk sitting in the Magistrates Court in Carlisle was told on April 9, officers followed a Nissan Leaf and witnessed the car “veering” from side to side on the A66, it eventually stopped after police flashed their lights.
The driver, Dimitar Alesksiev Lechev, 53, a Bulgarian national of Croft Avenue, Penrith smelt of alcohol.
He failed a road-side breathalyser test and was arrested, at the police station he gave a breath-reading of 47-microgrames of alcohol in 100-millilitres of breath; the legal limit is 35ml.
Lechev told the judge that he did not realise the car following him wanted him to stop, the court heard he had just left the Sportsman Inn, Troutbeck, when officers took note of his driving.
He pleaded guilty to the charge, when the judge explained he would have to be disqualified from driving, he became visibly upset, saying he is a chef and needs his car.
He was disqualified for 14-months fined £350 with court costs of £85 with a victim’s surcharge of £35, he was offered a drink-drivers rehabilitation driving course, undertaking this could reduce his ban by 14-weeks.
