Drink driver stopped by police after having three beers while watching King’s Coronation

A drink driver was caught with a bottle of vodka on the driver seat but denied consuming any.

At Lynn’s Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, Romans Grisins, 38, of Five Elms, Fairstead, admitted to driving above the specified alcohol limit.

Prosecutor Abdul Khan said that police pulled Grisins over on Loke Road as part of a routine stop.

Officers found an open bottle of vodka on the passenger seat of Grisins’ Vauxhaull Astra, and officers decided to breathalyse him.

A roadside breath test came back with a result of 78mcg of alcohol per 100ml of breath, the legal limit being 35mcg.

Grisins was arrested and taken to Lynn’s Police Investigation Centre where he provided another reading of 77mcg of alcohol per 100ml of breath.

By committing this crime, Grisins was in breach of a conditional discharge given to him by magistrates back in March for resisting an arrest.

However, in mitigation Andrew Cogan said that Grisins didn’t drink any of the vodka in the car, but that he did have a few beers before driving.

Mr Cogan said: “You might remember this day, it was the King’s Coronation day. Mr Grisins went to watch it with friends and had three large bottles of beer.

”He gave it a couple of hours before driving. There was no suggestion by police that there was any issues with his manner of driving.”

Grisins was disqualified from driving for 20 months, and also fined £438.

He was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £175 and court costs of £105.

Magistrates decided to let Grisins’ conditional discharge run, meaning he would not face any further punishment after being in breach of it.