A Ryde man, who had been drinking more after finding a dead body on his doorstep, has been banned from driving after his vehicle rolled into a wall when he forgot to put the handbrake on.
Joshua Vaughan, 24, of Nelson Street in Ryde, appeared before the Isle of Wight Magistrates Court on Tuesday charged with 1 count of drink driving.
The bench heard that during the early hours of Christmas Eve, 3 members of the public heard a loud noise when a white Audi A3 collided with a stone wall at the bottom of Nelson Street, near the junction with Castle Street. Neighbours rushed out but the driver was nowhere to be seen and the keys were not in the ignition, with the handbrake in the off position.
Police were called to the scene and conducted a number of vehicle checks which identified that the insured individuals lived just up the road. The property was visited and Mr Simon Vaughan stated he had been in all evening, but that his son Joshua Vaughan had to be out.
Officers noted that Joshua’s speech was slurred and requested a breath test to be completed, which returned a reading of 51. Vaughan was arrested on suspicion of drink driving and taken into custody at Newport Police Station where he gave an evidential reading of 50.
Defending, Lee Peckham said that an unfortunate sequence of events had led to the situation arising. He explained that his client had been out drinking in Ryde on the night in question but felt he was below the drink-drive limit, therefore deciding to drive his friend home to Ventnor. He returned home, parked the car up and went inside to bed. Mr Peckham said that the first he knew of the crash was when Police arrived at his doorstep.
It’s said that the handbrake was not applied and the vehicle rolled down the hill.
Mr Peckham told Magistrates that Vaughan was not a big drinker but, in hindsight, had been drinking more after finding a body on his doorstep back in November. The deceased male had died from hypothermia.
Magistrates, who noted Vaughan to be a ‘valued member of society’, handed down a 12-month driving ban and ordered Joshua Vaughan to pay a £346 fine, £85 costs and a £35 surcharge.
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