Daily Mail - 29.08.2019

Daily Mail, Thursday, August 29, 2019 Page 29

FORMER footballer Dean

Saunders was branded

‘arrogant’ yesterday by a

judge who jailed him for

suspected drink driving.

The 55-year-old former Wales

international had been at

Chester races before his Audi

A8 was spotted weaving across

the road by police.

When he was pulled over, the

former Liverpool striker and

TV pundit was slurring his

speech and seemed unsteady

on his feet, a court heard yes-

terday. Saunders, a father-of-

three, was asked to provide a

breath test.

But he was arrested after refus-

ing to blow hard enough into the

breathalyser on the roadside. He

from driving for 30 months. ‘You

have shown yourself to be arro-

gant, thinking you are someone

whose previous and current roles

in the public eye entitle you to be

above the law,’ the judge said.

‘In fact, the opposite is true.

Someone in the public eye should

set an example and expect a

deterrent sentence when they

deliberately flout the law.’

The judge said police, who

caught Saunders’s behaviour on

body cameras, were so concerned

about his driving along the A51

Tarvin Road towards his home,

near Winsford, Cheshire, that

they feared he would cause a seri-

ous accident.

Saunders was ‘obstructive and

evasive’ when asked to give a

breath test, the judge said, later

claiming he had drunk just three

pints all day and blaming his slur-

ring on medication.

The judge said he did not accept

Saunders’s explanation he was

‘confused’ at the police station

and thought he could wait for his

lawyer before giving a sample.

Chester magistrates’ court

heard two officers followed Saun-

ders after spotting his Audi

speeding at around 12.45am on

May 10.

Clare Bate, prosecuting, said:

‘The vehicle almost hit a kerb and

had to swerve to avoid hitting

another vehicle.’

Matt Harvey, of Mersey Chesh-

ire Crown Prosecution Service,

said: ‘He is now behind bars and

has only himself to blame.’

After the hearing Conor John-

stone, defending, said his client

was shocked by the sentence and

would appeal.

Saunders will serve half his

term, probably at HMP Altcourse,

in Liverpool, and was ordered to

pay £620 costs.

Former Liverpool star

jailed in breath test case

By Liz Hull

Men blamed after

drink-drive death

toll jumps by 9%

Guilty: Dean Saunders yesterday

A HARD core of male drink-driv-

ers has been blamed for a surge

in road deaths as official figures

show the number of fatalities

has risen to an eight-year high.

An estimated 250 people were

killed in drink-drive crashes in 2017,

according to the latest figures from

the Department for Transport. This

is a 9 per cent rise from 230 in 2016

and the worst toll since 2009.

Just over 40 per cent of those who

failed breath tests after road acci-

dents were more than twice the

limit. Just under eight in ten of the

5,700 drink-drive accidents in 2017

involved male drivers. Safety cam-

the pub. What is most concerning is

that there continues to be a hard

core, where more than two fifths of

those failing breath tests are more

than twice the limit.’

The alcohol limit for drivers in

England, Wales and Northern Ire-

land is 35 micrograms per 100 milli-

litres of breath, 80 milligrams per

100 millilitres of blood and 107 mil-

ligrams per 100 millilitres of urine.

Of the 6,204 who failed a breath

test after a road accident in 2017,

2,546 had 81 micrograms or more of

alcohol in their breath – more than

twice the legal limit. In total, an

estimated 8,600 people were killed

or injured by drink-drivers in 2017,

down 5 per cent on 2016.

Safety charity Brake raised con-

cerns about serial offenders, saying

more than 5,000 drivers have been

caught drink-driving on two or more

occasions in the past four years.

The alcohol limit in England,

Wales and Northern Ireland is the

highest in Europe, and campaign-

ers including Brake and the RAC

have called for it to be lowered.

The limit in Scotland – in line with

most other European countries – is

22mcg of alcohol per 100ml of

breath, 50mg per 100ml of blood, or

67mg per 100ml of urine.

By James Salmon

Transport Editor

‘Tragic and

dangerous’

‘Obstructive

and evasive’

refused again to give a breath test

at a nearby police station.

At an earlier hearing, Saunders

claimed his asthma had pre-

vented him from blowing hard

enough to provide a specimen.

He initially denied two charges

of failing to co-operate with a

roadside breath test and to pro-

vide a specimen, but changed his

plea ahead of the trial yesterday.

But District Judge Nicholas

Sanders told Saunders, dressed

in jeans, a navy waistcoat and

jacket, that he had shown no

remorse.

The footballer appeared

stunned as the judge jailed him

for ten weeks and banned him

paigners said police cuts were partly

to blame for the rise – as many driv-

ers believe that they are increas-

ingly unlikely to be caught.

According to the data, 147,550

breath tests were carried out by

officers in 2017, down 17 per cent

from 178,102 the previous year.

AA president Edmund King said

the lack of ‘cops in cars’ has played

into the hands of serial offenders.

He added: ‘We are all aware of how

tragic and dangerous drink-driving

can be, yet people are still willing to

get behind the wheel after a spell in