Drunk driver crashes car in Brooke after downing wine and beer at wake

A driver was nearly four times the legal limit when he crashed his car and ended up on a grass verge after downing wine and beer at a wake, a court heard.

Bryan Woodrow, 33, from The Grove, Shotesham All Saints, south of Norwich, gave a reading of 134mcg of alcohol in 100ml of breath, while the limit is 35mcg.

Woodrow appeared for sentencing at Norwich Magistrates' Court yesterday after pleading guilty to driving with excess alcohol at an earlier hearing, when he was given an interim driving ban.

He was disqualified from driving for 32 months, handed a 12-month community order, and ordered to do 250 hours unpaid work.

Lisa Mayne, prosecuting, said police were called to Entrance Lane, Brooke, at about 10.35pm on April 13.

She said: 'The main witness saw the defendant's vehicle stuck on a grass verge. She noted the defendant was very intoxicated. He asked her to help him push the car off the verge.

'She contacted police and Woodrow failed a roadside breath test. He admitted to police that he was drunk and told police he had been to a wake and had consumed half a dozen glasses of wine and four pints of beer. He was driving to his girlfriend's when he crashed, he said.'

For Woodrow, Ryan Creake said his client had fully co-operated with the police.

He said: 'He has no previous convictions and is having severe financial difficulties, and his house could be repossessed.

'He has split up from his wife and has limited access to his children. He accepts it was a foolish act and he is genuinely remorseful.'