Drink-driving dad caught speeding across road with kids and wife in car after wedding

A drink-driving father with his young children and wife in the car was pulled over by Leicestershire Police after attending a wedding in Leicester. Eddie Rodrigues, 44, was nearly three times his age when the family took him to the hotel.

Cars honking at him on Red Hill Circle in Belgrave drew officers’ attention to Rodrigues’ Suzuki Alto, and they spotted him swerving between lanes and hitting a kerb. He was stopped by officers in Beaumont Leys Lane and arrested for drink-driving after failing a roadside breath test.

At a police station he gave a breathalyzer of 81 micrograms of alcohol per 100 ml of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms.

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At Leicester Magistrates’ Court on Monday (20 May), he pleaded guilty to drink driving on Sunday 5 May. Prosecutor Richard Holt told the court: “At the Red Hill roundabout he was flagged down by other road users as he was turning. between lanes.

“It hit a nearby kerb, stopped at a service station and then continued. He was coming back from a wedding and he had his children, aged eight and 10, and his partner in the car.”

Steve Morris, representing Rodrigues, of Uxbridge Road, Slough, Berkshire, said: “It was his niece’s wedding and he had booked a hotel a short distance from the wedding venue. He stopped drinking for a few hours thinking he would be under. limit.

“But clearly he was wrong.”

Rodrigues, who works as a security officer at Heathrow Airport, was fined and banned from driving for 20 months. He must pay a fine of £461, a victim surcharge of £184 and costs of £85.

The chair of the bench, Jane Morton-Humphries, told him: “You were three times over the legal limit with children – your own children, in fact – in the car. Your driving left a lot to be desired.”