Drunk driver ‘fell out of car’ when stopped by cops

Dec 18 2008 by Alastair McNeill, Hamilton Advertiser

A DRUNK motorist caught driving without a full licence or insurance was last week banned from the road and fined £600.

After officers stopped Michal Parzych he stumbled out of his car and fell to the ground.

The fiscal-depute told Hamilton Sheriff Court that Parzych had been observed by officers on December 8 at the wheel of a car travelling in Hamilton’s Auchinraith Avenue.

The vehicle was swerving from one carriageway to the other.

They indicated to the 28-year-old to stop, and when he did so they approached the driver’s window.

When the officers spoke to the accused they detected a strong smell of alcohol and noticed that his speech was slurred and his eyes glazed.

On getting out of the vehicle Parzych, a Polish national, fell to the ground.

Officers asked him to sit in the rear of his car and he was given a roadside breath test before being taken to a police station and breathalysed again.

The reading, 98 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, was almost three-times the legal limit.

Parzych’s lawyer, Charles Ferguson, told the court that the best that could be said for his client was that he had pleaded guilty at the earliest stage, saving the court a great deal of trouble.

The accused, a factory worker earning £240 per week, had also spent a night in custody prior to the court appearance.

Parzych pleaded guilty to the charges at the court on December 9.

Passing sentence the following day, Sheriff Shiona Waldron described the charges as very serious.

She said the accused had been driving in a disgraceful condition and had posed a serious risk to public safety.

He was disqualified from driving for 30 months. Sheriff Waldron also fined him £300 for the drink-driving offence, £100 for driving without a full licence and £200 for driving without insurance.