Two Brighton and Hove drink drivers banned again

Two drink drivers from Brighton and Hove have been banned from the roads again after being caught during the annual Christmas and new year crackdown.

John Mills, 48, of Bexhill Road, Woodingdean, was arrested at 9.40pm on Friday 20 December after Sussex Police stopped his car at a checkpoint in Falmer Road, Rottingdean.

At Brighton Magistrates’ Court he pleaded guilty to drink-driving.

The court banned him from driving for 38 months, fined him £170 and ordered him to pay £50 costs and a £20 victim surcharge.

He was previously banned from driving in 2010.

John Clugston, of Egmont Road, Hove, was arrested in Dyke Road, Brighton, at 10.20pm on New Year’s Eve (Tuesday 31 December) after a car crash. No other vehicles were involved.

The unemployed 30-year-old also admitted drink-driving when he appeared at Brighton Magistrates’ Court.

He was banned from driving for three years, fined £110 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £20 victim surcharge.

He was previously banned from driving in 2004.

A woman from Saltdean was given a year-long ban after she refused to provide a specimen of breath for analysis.

Anita Officer, 51, was charged after she drove her car into a tree in Bannings Vale, Saltdean, shortly after 7pm on Wednesday 4 December.

Officer, of Wicklands Avenue, Saltdean, pleaded guilty and, as well as being banned from driving, she was fined £250 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £25 victim surcharge.

Albert Dimas was arrested at 4.15pm on Sunday 8 December after officers found his car next to a damaged fence at South Coast Road in Telscombe.

The 48-year-old, of South Coast Road, Peacehaven, pleaded guilty to drink driving and criminal damage.

He was banned from driving for 17 months, fined £230 and ordered to pay £100 compensation, £85 costs and a £23 victim surcharge.

Chief Inspector Natalie Moloney said: “Even though we are in March now the courts are still having to deal with the cases of selfish drivers who got behind the wheel after drinking or taking drugs.”

She said that the fact that some of the latest group to be dealt with had previously been prosecuted for the same thing was disappointing.

She added: “Clearly being banned from the roads is not enough of a deterrent to them.

“Hopefully their time as pedestrians will convince them of the cost of mixing drink and driving and might prevent them from doing it again.”