South Tyneside Amazon worker handed ban after drink driving and refusing breath test
The defendant faces up to 26 weeks behind bars when later sentenced after pleading guilty to a charge of failing to provide a sample for analysis.
An Amazon employee suspected of drink driving in South Tyneside was so unsteady on his feet he had to be held up, a court heard.
John Restrepo, 33, had boozed the night before and sank two more drinks before getting behind the wheel and driving to the Nook shopping centre in South Shields.
Restrepo, of Prince Edward Road, had his three-year-old child with him when worried witnesses called police at 5.20pm on Thursday, April 25.
He then repeatedly refused to be breath tested, batting away officers’ requests by saying simply ‘no’, prosecutor Paul Coulson told borough magistrates.
The defendant faces up to 26 weeks behind bars when later sentenced after pleading guilty to a charge of failing to provide a sample for analysis.
Mr Coulson said: “Officers were on mobile patrol when they were asked to attend Prince Edward Road, about a possible drink driver.
“They saw a Toyota with a flat tyre parked. Members of the public pointed to the defendant and told police he had been driving.
“He was with a small child who was his child. The defendant’s eyes were glazed, and he smelled of intoxicating liquor.
“He was told that a sample of breath was needed. He was seen to be very unstable on his feet and needed help to stay up. He was arrested.
“The defendant was asked to provide a sample of breath to which he refused. He was transferred to a police station.
“He was again asked to provide two breath samples to which he replied ‘no’. He was told that failure was an offence.
“This offence is high culpability, it was a deliberate refusal to provide and there was a high level of impairment.
“The incident is aggravated by the fact that he was carrying a young child as a passenger and there were pedestrians in the vicinity.”
Restrepo is from South America and has no previous convictions, it was said.
Nick Moore, defending, said: “He accepts that he had been drinking the night before and had had two further drinks before driving.
“He was driving to collect his wife from work. He got a flat tyre and that’s why the police were called. He wasn’t involved in an accident.
“He has accepted that he has issues with alcohol. He is likely to lose his employment as a result of this offence.”
Magistrates adjourned the case and ordered an all-options report, meaning custody is a possibility.
Restrepo was handed an interim driving ban and will be sentenced at the same court on Tuesday, July 2.