6:00pm Friday 12th March 2010
A PARATROOPER has been banned from driving after crashing his car three times while drunk, causing £1,500 damage to a restaurant.
Colchester magistrates also ordered George Bradshaw, a private in 3 Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, to pay a total of £1,000.
Bradshaw and fellow para Wayne Morgan will also face an Army disciplinary panel as a result of the incident.
Bradshaw admitted drink-driving, driving without insurance and failing to stop at the scene of an accident. Morgan admitted aiding and abetting Bradshaw and allowing him to drive without insurance.
The court heard Bradshaw, 20, from Broadstone, Dorset, had more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in his body when he drove Morgan’s Mitsubishi Carisma on January 17 this year.
On their way to a party, Bradshaw crashed the car into the window of Manna Tandoori in East Street, Colchester.
Tamzin Sharp, prosecuting, said instead of stopping, Bradshaw reversed and continued driving up the street, before spinning on to the pavement outside a pub.
Bradshaw and Morgan then pushed the car back on to the road and tried to drive off again, but crashed into a bollard. They were arrested in Harwich Road.
Bradshaw told the court he assumed he was insured on Morgan’s policy.
Morgan, 29, from Treorchy, Mid Glamorgan, who has served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Bosnia, claimed he was so drunk he did not check whether Bradshaw was fit to drive and assumed he had insurance.
Raphael Pigott, representing Bradshaw, said he had an exemplary military record.
He had served in Afghanistan and was due to return in September.
Mr Piggott added: “It has been a lesson to him about drinking too much and the dire consequences that can unfold and what can happen to his Army career.”
Bradshaw was banned from driving for 20 months, fined £300 for drink-driving, £200 for failing to stop, £200 for driving without insurance and ordered to pay £200 compensation to the restaurant and £100 costs.
Morgan was fined £500 and ordered to pay £100 costs.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/trade_directory/