Mansfield drink driver caught for third time in four years

A police officer saw Lee Slater overtake vehicles at speed on the junction of Clipstone Road and Old Mill Lane, just after midnight on July 22.

He followed the Range Rover and, when he turned on his blue lights, Slater pulled into a bus stop.

When the officer got out, the Range Rover sped off, said prosecutor Robert Carr.

Slater repeated the trick on Jubilee Way, but finally stopped in the middle of Eakring Road.

A test revealed he had 106 microgrammes in 100 millitres of breath, when the legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

The court heard he had two previous convictions in the past four years for driving with excess alcohol.

Mary Dixon, mitigating, said: “We all agree that this passes the custody threshold.”

She said the dad-of-three had split up with his girlfriend, but had hoped to reconcile with her, when he discovered seeing someone else.

He had been out drinking with a friend, and was charging his mobile in his friend’s Range Rover, when he decided to drive it home.

“That’s as a result of the break-up and his becoming extremely depressed,” Mrs Dixon said, adding that Slater was on medication for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

She said jailing him would have a severe impact on his children, added to which prison is “a dangerous environment for people with mental health issues.”

Magistrates were shown a reference from his employers, which “shows him in a different light,” added Mrs Dixon.

Slater, 32, of Carlton Close, Forest Town, admitted drink driving, without a licence or insurance, and failing to stop, when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Wednesday.

He was given eight weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months, and was put on a 12 month community order with ten rehabilitation days and a six month alcohol programme.

He was banned from driving for 40 months. He was ordered to pay £85 costs and an £85 government surcharge.