Drunk man asked to leave Ashby pub goes to sit in car and is arrested for motoring offense

A drunk man who was asked to leave a pub went to sit in his car and was arrested for drink driving. Jonathan Jenkinson, 40, had been at the White Hart in Ashby with his girlfriend when pub staff asked him to leave just after midnight on Sunday, June 16.

Leicestershire Police officers on duty in Market Street saw him stagger towards the Seat Leon parked outside the pub, get behind the wheel and put the ignition on. He was arrested after he failed a breathalyzer test and pleaded guilty to drink driving at Leicester Magistrates’ Court on Monday (July 1).

Prosecutor Ravinder Daroch told the court that Jenkinson was “unsteady on his feet, almost squinting and leaning back to steady himself” as he walked to the car. And after they approached him, he “conformed somewhat agitated”.

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He was arrested and taken to Euston Street Police Station in Leicester where he was given a breath test. It gave a reading of 101 micrograms per 100ml of breath – the legal limit is 35 micrograms.

Jabeen Naru, representing Jenkinson, said her client never intended to drive the car. She said: “He was asked to leave by staff and he went to the vehicle and put the ignition on.

“He says he wanted his girlfriend to know he was in the car and she was going to get out and they were going to walk home – it wasn’t his intention to drive home, he said.

“He knew he was staggering, he was drunk.” She said Jenkinson had a child from a previous relationship in Derby and needed his car to go there. She asked magistrates to give him points on his license instead of banning him, which magistrates agreed.

He was given 10 points on his license and warned that any further driving offenses would see him banned. He was also fined £316 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £184 surcharge.

Chair of the bench Jane Hanson told Jenkinson, of Main Street, Linton, near Swadlincote: “I think you realize it was not a particularly sensitive thing. Try not to do that again, that would be my advice.”