£1.4k fine for over-the-limit driver who carried passenger

Monday 06 February 2023

A motorist has been fined £1,400 and banned from getting behind the wheel after driving through St. Helier with a passenger in his car while over the legal alcohol limit.

Zack Boakye-Yiadom (26) drove from Gloucester Street to Sand Street car park at 2.20am on 30 November, the Magistrate’s Court was told.

Police officers arrested him in the car park and a blood test gave a reading of 89 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80 micrograms.
Advocate Heidi Heath, defending, pointed out that Boakye-Yiadom was just over the legal limit and had admitted the offence at the earliest opportunity.

She said: "He made a terrible mistake and he takes full responsibility for it."

She added that Boakye-Yiadom relied on his car in his work as an electrician, so asked for any driving ban to be "towards the lower end of the scale".

But the Magistrate, Bridget Shaw, said the fact that there was a passenger in the car made the offence more serious.

She fined him £1,400 and disqualified him from driving for 12 months. He was ordered to retake his driving test afterwards.